Sugarplum Fairies

The opening chords of this album are anything but what one would imagine "sugarplum fairies” to sound like. Thankfully, after the infusion of sonic dissidence the album finds both its sound and pace. The former being a world of soft alt-rock, primarily guitar-driven, with breathy female-fronted melodies. The vocals of Sylvia Ryder are occasionally reminiscent of those on Garbage’s ballads, while musically the Fairies drift closer to the territory of Mazzy Star and other similarly ethereal and melancholy bands. This latest offering, as its title suggests, serves up more lonely lyrics about introspection and heartbreak than get down and rock out — in fact, there is no "rock out” here at all. The 16 songs that make up Introspective Raincoat Student Music, apart from the jarring opening are uniform from start to finish, cleanly produced, quietly pretty but unfortunately because they hold no unexpected surprises or prominent hooks, become rather forgettable once the disc is out of the player.