With the titular first single already out and the second, “Only You,” along imminently, it is the perfect time to jump on the Frally bandwagon. Do so, and you will find yourself immersed in ethereal sonics and hushed and heavenly vocals, music which gently washes over you, meditative and mellifluous, a blend of orchestral ambiance and folktronic finesse, cinematic smarts and dreamlike delicacy.
Message from the Future is a collection of six songs that are unlike anything you have heard before. There are, two covers on the album but a Frally cover takes a song into a whole alternative realm, which is the only way to approach reimagining other people’s work, and here we are presented with a masterclass in how to do it.
I grew up at a time when “Only You” was a constant soundtrack, both by Yazoo and the a capella cover by The Flying Pickets. Both are wonderfully different, both adding something to the musical landscape. It is fair to say that Frally manages to find somewhere else to pitch the song, leaning towards the latter version but embued with classical grace and gorgeous atmospherics.
And if that seems like a logical cover, given her signature sound, reimagining Tom Petty‘s “American Girl” in a similar, understated, choir-of-angels vein is as unexpected as it is brilliant. All of this just reinforces that a great song is a great song no matter what style or sound you deliver it in.
The standout track, for my money, is “Baltimore,” a dreamlike and drifting ballad, it moves through the listener’s consciousness with grace, is meditative and, frankly, quite marvelous. Some songs are listened to, encountered, heard, “Baltimore” seems to enter the listener’s senses more through a process of osmosis! when was the last time a song did that to you?
Message from the Future is a gorgeous collection of songs and a reminder that if you rework other people’s music, you need to have a good reason for doing so, another place to take it musically, else what’s the point. Frally takes these songs to that part of heaven where the angels sing for their pleasure.
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