Bavarian Fruit Bread

Bavarian Fruit Bread Artist: Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Label: Rough Trade Us
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 021823000121
EAN: 0021823000121
ASIN: B0007M225C


Release Date: 2005-01-25

Bavarian Fruit Bread


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Tracks:

  1. Drop
  2. Suzanne
  3. Butterfly Mornings
  4. On the Low
  5. Baby Let Me
  6. Feeling of Gaze
  7. Charlotte
  8. Clear Day
  9. Bavarian Fruit Bread
  10. Around My Smile
  11. Lose Me on the Way

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  3. She Hangs Brightly
  4. So Tonight That I Might See
  5. Heroes

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars She sings brightly.......2005-04-19

Her wispy, soft vocals were the biggest highlight of Mazzy Star's smoky pop. But now that that much-missed band is gone, Hope Sandoval sets out as a solo artist, in the enchanting "Bavarian Fruit Bread." If you can't have Mazzy Star, then this is a pretty good alternative.

It opens with an acoustic guitar playing a slow melody, mellow and gently. That tune doesn't change much throughout the opening song "Drop," except that Sandoval begins singing in a moody, dreamy manner after a minute. That pretty much sets the tone for the entire album, except for a few songs -- sweet vocals, languid melodies, and a few chimes thrown in.

Most of the songs that follow are much the same -- mellow, gentle, sad acoustic ballads. A few break the mold, with an electric guitar riff in the smoldering "On The Low," and a distant piano solo in "Baby Let Me." And the final song "Lose Me On The Way" is a brilliant slice of experimental pop, slowly sliding from guitar to synth and haunted-house effects, and then back again.

"Bavarian Fruit Bread" is undoubtedly Sandoval's own effort, despite all the inevitable comparisons to her defunct band. It's prettier, less jazzy, more delicate, and simpler. And taken only on its own, it's still a remarkably pretty piece of indie folkpop.

Some of the acoustic guitar playing is somewhat weak, which becomes even clearer when the electric one enters the scene. It's far too simple. So, for that matter, is the songwriting ("Gonna find all your trouble/Gonna send them away/Gonna make you feel happy/Gonna be what you say"), although the songwriting's simplicity is something of a blessing.

However, the piano, eerie fuzzy synth, and slightly scratchy violin are well done, and add some extra dimension to the pretty little songs. Perhaps the only instrumental flaw is that Sandoval and her band never pick up the tempo. Everything is slow and languid. Why not a few midtempo songs?

But whatever the melodies are, they seem to exist to frame Sandoval's lovely voice. She puts it to good use here, singing as if she were half asleep. "The way you drop/Is like a stone/Making out you're flying/But you've just been thrown," she murmurs in the opening song. While these are very simple, they are also beautiful in their lack of pretension.

Music Album:

  1. Ovo: Millennium +1 (Ltd Edition) ~ Peter Gabriel
  2. Grass and Wild Strawberries ~ The Collectors
  3. Almost A Jubilee: 25 Years At The BBC (with Gaps) ~ Wreckless Eric
  4. Thoroughbred ~ Carole King
  5. Aint' No Easy Way ~ B.R.M.C.
  6. The Reason ~ Hoobastank
  7. Finally ~ The Frames
  8. In the Hot Seat ~ Lake & Palmer Emerson
  9. Love and Kisses from the Underground ~ Handsome Devil
  10. Rage...Before Beauty ~ The Pretty Things

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Stablemates ~ Eric Alexander & Lin Halliday

The Cry of Love ~ Jimi Hendrix

The Dixieland All Stars ~ Dixieland All Stars

Swingin' & Singin' ~ Warren Vache Sr. & the Syncopatin Seven

Le Perturbateur

The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse ~ Duke Ellington

Riverdance-Lord of the Dance ~ Various Artists

Viola ~ Fabio Tagliaferri

Mysterious Albania ~ Various Artists

Gensyoku Gal Hadeni Ikube ~ Maki Goto