autumnshades.com
album reviews

Paula Frazer
Leave the Sad Things Behind
Birdman
* * * *

It would be easy for Paula Frazer's vocals to be the centerpiece of Leave the Sad Things Behind. She projects a sultry confidence right from the start on album opener "Always On My Mind," and her voice is as rich and vibrant as the paintings of which she sings on "Watercolor Lines." But even more striking than her voice are her enchanting arrangements, which feature a jubilant flugelhorn on "No Other" and interwoven strings on the melancholy "Where Did Time Go." While Frazer's solo work might not be a wild departure from her Tarnation material, her development as a songwriter gives her no shortage of possibilities for the future.

-Catherine P. Lewis

.: Originally published: Paste web exclusive: 6 December 2005
.: Leave the Sad Things Behind on Amazon.com