A Fine Frenzy

These days, it seems there’s a whole new genre of music recorded specifically for teenage television shows — melancholy songs about spurned and unrequited love that play in the background while the lead character stares into the distance and walks alone along the beach. It used to be The O.C. but these days The Hills has picked up the baton and run with it. And that’s exactly what A Fine Frenzy do, headed by Alison Sudol, a 22-year-old with a Dido-esque voice, who plays the piano like Tori Amos in her mellower moments. And that means that One Cell In The Sea is a very pretty album full of songs that are perfect for the aforementioned scenes. That might be a little cruel because Sudol’s songs are more than just generic background music, and people who like this kind of thing will definitely like it a lot. But for the casual listener who won’t invest the time to wonder at her wise-beyond-her-years lyrics and the beautiful, intricate arrangements, there’s a good chance this will be dismissed as just another artist they heard on One Tree Hill.