e_burrell's Full Review: A Perfect Dream by Sarah Fimm
Sarah Fimm has some issues. Let’s get that out of the way right off the bat. On her second album “A Perfect Dream”, she explores everything from aliens, death, love, nightmares, treachery, dead poets, dead artists and Spock. There’s more, much more, and as this album quietly lumbers along you’re invited to yes, boldly go where no man has gone before.
Lumber is the word. Although Fimm seems to be an ‘Artist On The Brink’ – some might say she’s about to break in a big way – she inherits her style by viciously aping other artists, namely (and lazily most obvious) Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. Her deeply rooted worry for the human race in general also reminds one of Sinead O’Connor at times.
The cursory comparisons all but end in a hail of jazz drums and bass when “Spit Trap Ghetto (Starring Sam)” lurches to life with a string of obscenities and the lines “Crazy getting silly with a fat old man and his alligator hands so cold / rubbing me down with a toothless frown / says he’d give 20 dollars to shoot his load / Schizophrenic Simon with his crack jaw hacksaw dirty motherf*cker look / everybody wants some blood from babies.” After this barrage of insanity we’re treated to Fimm’s idea of red-hot erotica as “Lioness” bristles through the speakers and encircles you as (you guessed it) a lioness on the prowl might do.
At points throughout “A Perfect Dream” you desperately want to look up Sarah Fimm and give her the number for that great shrink you know. When you hear her utter the line “And it’s cold where the living don’t go / and everyone is moving / but everyone is safe in the ground” in the trickily titled “Salvia Path” you worry for the girl – you really do.
Each tune kind of fades into the next, all synthesized beats and piano. Occasionally there’ll be a voice over with a point to make, but so often the point gets lost in the unending misery of everything that escapes Fimm’s lips. The strongest tune is the first one, “Be Like Water”. Not because of the lyrics – they’re predictably depressing – but because it starts us off on such a promise – a promise that we won’t be wallowing in pain for an hour straight. Unfortunately, for the most part, the promise ends up being broken.
It’s not all doom and gloom – Fimm understands the hardships and hassles inherent in humanity. She seems to get a higher meaning behind it all. “When you’ve fallen below all the sh*t you’ve been fed” she says, “And you feel like you’re gonna go mad / then you know you have come out alive more than dead.” And really, how mortifying can an artist be when in the album credits they give their whole-hearted thanks to Egon, Mr. Head, Andre the Giant and Vizzini – with a post note of “P.S. Khan, from Hell’s heart I stab at thee.”
So what have we learned? Surely not even enough to nick the psyche of Sarah Fimm. Unfortunately, we only catch a slight glimpse of a sad, sad girl.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.