Frou Frou Album: “Details”

"Frou Frou" apparently means "rustle of silk," a seemingly appropriate name for one of the best trip-hop bands since Portishead. Their debut album "Details" is shimmery, textured music, mixing feathery ballads with funky pop, and all sung in Imogene Heap's sweet vocals.

Catchy trip-hop forms the core of this, especially the solid, fast-paced "Breathe In," which has a slightly fantastical sound. It doesn't get much more fun than the swirling catchy "Must Be Dreaming," bouncy little pop song "Shh," or the delicately pensive "Maddening Shroud." These songs mix pop rhythms with ambient sound, and end up getting the best of both.

There's a softer, less poppy side to Frou Frou as well. "Let Go" is a delicate little song accompanied by piano and little electronic swooshes. So is "The Dumbing Down of Love," a gentle blend of electronica and piano melody, and the minimalist electronica of "Psychobabble," which is mostly Heap's breathy voice against some dark electronic sounds.

Imogene Heap returns in a big way with producer Guy Sigsworth. And this time around, Heap gets all the attention she deserves. A few of the songs aren't quite top-quality, but each one has its own sweet appeal. And most surprisingly, Frou Frou manages to do ballads and trip-hop equally well, giving a haunted air to the former and a bright one to the latter.

It's virtually impossible to blend pop, electronica and ambient music this seamlessly. But somehow Frou Frou does it. The best qualities of each musical style are all captured and blended together, usually in a blend of slow piano, shimmery synth and low-key guitar. If it doesn't make your ears tingle, then you must be deaf.

Heap's voice is a bit like pop newcomer Jem's -- it's sweet and wispy, yet surprisingly strong. And it has the smooth quality of someone who is completely in tune with the music. And she brings a lot of feeling to the wistful songs about emotional turmoil and losing love: "If love is surrender/Then whose war is it anyway?"

Funky, catchy trip-hop and delicate ballads are what Frou Frou is all about. Sweet, shimmery and catchy, this is a must-have for lovers of good pop.

This is the best female artist album I own. I treasure it more than Madonna's Ray Of Light, Natalie Imbruglia's Left Of The Middle, any of Sarah McLachlan's albums, more than any female artist album I can think of. It's easily one of my all-time favorite albums. I cannot believe it was originally released in 2000. I didn't discover this cd until shortly after hearing Let Go in the film Garden State.

It was love from the beginning. Let Go's appearance at the end of Garden State is a landmark moment in my life of media exposure. It defined a feeling I was looking for, a life-change that I needed. Let Go is one of my favorite songs ever.

I purchased Frou Frou's Details a couple months after watching Garden State. I remember how excited I was just to own an album with Let Go on it. Now I'm excited when I hear any song from Details. Let Go amazed me with its violin samples, beautiful introduction, simple keyboard melody, lullaby resemblance, vocal track, and on and on. The album is the same. Digitized bass, woodwind samples, high hats, warped vocals, beautiful ambience and amazing sound effects... this is electronica perfection. Imogene Heap's voice is simultaneously heart-breaking and hopeful. Samples of her voice slide through the air like sheets of silk slide between bodies, which likely explains why the band chose its name (see Amazon review). Breathe In... I don't know how to explain it. Most of these songs I associate with images and feelings, not concrete descriptions. Just the sound of Heap calling out "Cause I love you..." is enough to make my day. Her whispers haunt me. It's Good To Be In Love is beautiful. "I'm happy you're in love." Must Be Dreaming is an excellent track with a fast tempo that makes the song borderline techno/trance.

"Euphoria, I can't take anymore..."

Then Psychobabble scares the crap out of everyone. Bells and possessed bass lines, violins, chilling vocals and the harsh truth make this song great. Only Got One is so good it actually made me like the cliche "you've only got one life to live."

Then there's this Shh song. The glowing, reverberating bells... the free-flowing vocal harmonies... "Are we having fun yet..." I still can't believe how classic this whole album is. Shh is fantastic. Hear Me Out defies rejection and will forever typify the sentiment of the hopeless lover. When you don't care what anyone thinks about your refusal to let go of someone, this is the song to listen to. This is the song that defines being in that position. It's amazing.

Maddening Shroud is so good it's ridiculous. It's bedtime music. It's wedding music. It's movie music. I mean, I hear this song and life becomes good. It's all ok. Throw away what hurts you. Flicks is another great song. The layers of Heap's voice come together and bliss is what I feel. Song after song I tell you. Love drips from this album. The Dumbing Down Of Love elegantly closes the casket on this masterpiece: cry.

I am truly at a loss for words here. I love this album. I will remember this album for life. This is music for life.

I first saw a review for this CD on the WB.com. They have some pretty good music in some of their shows (case in point: Coldplay on Smallville). I downloaded the main single, Breath In. It completely blew my mind. I knew right then that I needed to get this CD, and I can't say enough about it.

I was talking to a friend and he asked me to discribe why it was that I liked it so much, and I couldn't put it into words. Maybe it's the awesome beats, maybe it's the enchanting voice, or maybe it's the melodies. I don't know, but whatever it is, it's AMAZING!

Favorite songs are: Let go (sooooo good)

GET THIS CD!

For all you Imogen Heap fans this is great news! She's back! It's Imogen Heap in her new creation, Frou Frou. Here she teams up with Guy Sigsworth to make some wonderful songs that will fill up the empty space since Imogen's last release "i Megaphone" in 1998.

Imogen brings back her wispy yet strong voice with its wide range and comfy feel. The songs are a combination of pop, trip-hop and ambient with catchy melodies (without being trite) and funky rhythms.

"It's Good to be in Love" is a favorite of mine as it sounds like it would fit in very nicely on "i Megaphone". It's also radio friendly and if any station is not playing it, they should be.

"Must be Dreaming" also sounds very radio ready. I just know if this stuff were played Frou Frou would be hugely famous.

"Hear Me Out" could be this recording's "Come Here Boy" which I believe made the biggest splash off of her first CD.

If you liked Imogen's solo stuff, you'll love this as well. If you aren't familiar with her and you like artists like Poe, Fiona Apple and so on, then check her out. You won't regret it.

(see full review on Collectedsounds.com)

Frou Frou's Details was pretty much the soundtrack of my predominant relationship for 2002-2003, but on closer listen reveals that it was much more suited for our break-up and post-love woes. I think it meant a lot to us because it was something we shared and somewhat discovered together. I was already familiar with vocalist Imogen Heap's solo work from her terrifyingly good debut, I Megaphone; and he, a fan of Bjork, Seal, and Madonna, was more familiar with Guy Sigsworth's production. For them and for us, it was a match made in heaven. Beneath all the expressive voice and electronic effects lie some pretty devastating lyrics - remixed melancholy, if you will.

Don't get me wrong, Immi (as her friends call her, and I'll gratuitously include myself in that lot since I did listen to LFO on her iPod) does more than sing and Guy does more then fiddle with knobs but it wasn't until their writing of "Flicks" that they decided to form Frou Frou and be more than just a performer and a producer (Guy produced I Megaphone's lead-off track, "Getting Scared"). "Flicks" lyrics ironically parallel the story of my own relationship as "a flicker of the future could've saved the cindered sister ... the ones to come feel too far to care." The song rises up from a simple electronic loop and Immi's vocals slowly adding a drum beat, guitars, and a swirling trumpet before layering three levels of the vocals. "Let Go" opens the disc with a rather peaceful and building string section as Immi asks for the deciding word on the future of a relationship, "It's alright cause there's beauty in the breakdown." First single "Breathe In" made modest waves here in the States and slightly larger ones abroad with its unusual guitars and drum beat. "It's Good To Be In Love," the album's decided highlight, is deceptively a love song as its bright melody masks the true nature of the song, "It's good to be in love / it really does suit you / just like everything / I'm happy you're in love / Cause every colour goes where you do." In concert, Frou Frou take out all the digital trickery and leave this number as a solo piano piece illustrating that their compositions can hold the same emotional pull, if not more so, without the assistance of technology. The haunting "Psychobabble" with it's stalker imagery ("Do just what I tell you and no one will get hurt") would send chills down the most secure of spines. Its string section builds to add tension, handbells clang, the distant resonance of the bassline, the precise quietness as the waterphone takes the solo all create truly one of the most terrifying songs I've heard without resorting to shrieking or any other instrumental/vocal histrionics. And while "Psychobabble" is more produced than all the other tracks it is the fact that it keeps the sounds to their natural elements that makes it all the more powerful. The simple "The Dumbing Down Of Love" closes off the disc and is primarily a solo piano piece with only the slightest dabbles of reverb and effect thrown in for weight. A string section slowly works its way into the mix as does a trumpet adding their appropriate blend of magic and mourning

To examine these pieces individually really does injustice to their album as a whole because with Details Frou Frou creates more of an atmosphere rather than standalone songs. A mature atmosphere deeply soaked in vibrant hues slowly darkening with the realization of a broken heart. In "The Dumbing Down Of Love," Imogen exclaims, "music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry" and before you know it that's what happens, the heart coated in deep purple tears as the disc unknowingly trails off like a conversation left hanging in the air ... the last conversation in a failed romance ...