Freak Scene #67: Ciarra Fragale Arrives on 'Get What You Want'
And Wishbone Zoë takes a singer-songwriter approach on her first LP since 2020.
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Ciarra Fragale fulfills the promise of her single “Jazzercize Is on TV” with a new ’80s-inflected album, while Wishbone Zoë takes a singer-songwriter turn on her latest.
One programming question: I had been sending these out around lunchtime, but is it better receiving them first thing in the morning? Hit “reply” and let me know!
Ciarra Fragale has been building toward Get What You Want all along. The North Adams singer’s fourth LP is her most accomplished so far, mainly because she has spent a lot of time figuring out how to get the sound she wants.
“In a lot of ways, this is the music that I’ve always strived to create but never had the proper resources,” Fragale says by email. “I’ve recorded my own music since high school, but in the last few years have just committed myself to learning everything I can about arranging and production and how a song feels.”
The feeling she evokes is synth-pop, on 10 songs that pair analog synthesizers with effects-treated guitar for a vibe somewhere between the Flashdance soundtrack and Tears for Fears at their height — but with a personality that is all Fragale’s own. Tears for Fears are a touchstone here: Fragale cites their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair, as well as Kate Bush’s 1985 LP Hounds of Love, as inspirations for what she’s doing on Get What You Want.
“The expansiveness is what really draws me in,” says Fragale, who recorded the album in Nashville with Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, an online friend she connected with in person. “What I enjoy most about those textures is that you can really use it to paint a landscape of sound, and then the drums come in and it's like, ‘OK, we’ve arrived.’ It’s very cinematic and sweeping.”
Fragale’s voice is just as impressive as her deepening command of the musical arrangements, tone and pacing of ’80s hits. She is a powerhouse singer who can do sultry as easily as she can rattle the windowpanes. Fragale offers both on “Changing Tables” over a machine-steady drumbeat, accompanied by the overlapping gurgle of synth parts and a needle-like guitar that comes and goes throughout the track. She sends her voice soaring on the swift-flowing “Underwater” as guitars and synths tumble over each other, and dials in a languid, heartworn feel on “Guess You Didn’t Mean It.” “It’s the middle of May and I’m tired from the summer already,” she sings over drifting synths before a punchy drum part kicks in.
Elsewhere, “Memorial Day Bike Ride” adds electric piano to the mix, while guitars carry “Before the Party’s Over,” a grown-up infatuation song with stacks of rich vocal harmonies. It’s a lavish track on an album that is rooted in nostalgia, but never beholden to it. Though Fragale draws on the sound of a specific era, the sentiments in her songs are universal and timeless and, best of all, filtered through her own unique perspective.
Wishbone Zoe Goes Back to Her Roots on ‘Blue Distances’
After Wishbone Zoë offered an eclectic sampling of material on her Micro-Mirage EP last year, the Amherst musician landed on a minimalist singer-songwriter approach for Blue Distances, her first full-length album since 2020.
Billed as “a return to her folky, songwriting roots,” Blue Distances features 10 songs pared back to their essential elements. For Wishbone, that’s mainly acoustic guitar, bass and her voice, which is clear and tuneful. She sings quietly on opener “Blessterberg,” a subdued travelogue where she lists off cities as though they’re part of a tour itinerary and pairs them with striking imagery describing the road or the sky at night. On “Happy Loud,” she plays a lilting figure on guitar and doubles it on bass, wrapping her slightly mussed voice around a melody that rises and falls like steady breathing.
Later, “Sagrado Coraçao” is a heartstopping bedroom-pop ditty with blatty bass and acoustic guitar framing an exquisite little melody that makes you want to hold your breath so as not to miss a note. Written partly in Espinho, Portugal, the tune has a more exotic feel than “Long Slow Hadley,” which closes the album. Wishbone delivers cascading vocals over stop-start guitar strumming, and though there are plenty of differences between a Portuguese beach town and a Western Mass. farming community, there’s a no-place-like home vibe that suggests (to me, at least) that after nights on the road peering through the glare of the high beams, or sun-drenched vacations at the seaside, there’s something affirming about having a place you love to come back to.
Upcoming Concerts
The Iron Horse hosts a tribute to Jill Sobule May 31 featuring Madeleine Peyroux, Erin McKeown, June Millington, Syd Straw, Kris Delmhorst, Wesley Stace (sometimes known as John Wesley Harding), Winterpills, Heather Maloney, Julian Fleisher, Gretchen Phillips and the Nields in duo form (tickets). Sobule was scheduled to perform that day, but the folk-pop singer died May 1 in a house fire outside of Minneapolis.
Other Iron Horse shows: Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber June 7 (tickets), Joe Pug Aug. 14 (tickets), Acoustic Alchemy Nov. 4 (tickets) and Tony Trischka Dec. 3 (tickets). Jazz vocalist ganavya has canceled a performance May 30; tickets will be automatically refunded.
The Parlor Room presents Paper Lady, Gollylagging, Perennial and Helen’s Hands June 13 (tickets); Perennial this week released the stellar new track “Baby, Are You Abstract?” Less explosively (one imagines), Dave Dersham & Sharron Vaillette are there Oct. 2 (tickets).
The Drake hosts Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage Aug. 2 (tickets), Nilüfer Yanya Sept. 9 (tickets) and Nick Shoulders Nov. 14 (tickets).
The Marigold Theater in Easthampton presents the Gaslight Tinkers June 6 (tickets) and a night of punishing heavy metal with Epicenter, Horse Grave and Karate Steve Aug. 1.
Westville Music Bowl in New Haven has Dwight Yoakam with the Mavericks Sept. 11 (tickets); the one time I’ve seen Yoakam live, opening for Brooks & Dunn in 2002 at Mohegan Sun, he was outstanding.
Beres Hammond plays College Street Music Hall in New Haven Aug. 15 (tickets).
Gary Numan comes to District Music Hall in Norwalk Oct. 18 (tickets).
The Space Ballroom in Hamden has Skating Polly Aug. 4 (tickets), Eddie 9V Aug. 15 (tickets), the latter-day NRBQ Aug. 16 (tickets), the shoegaze band LSD and the Search for God Aug. 23 (tickets) and MICO Sept. 13 (tickets).
That’s a wrap on this week, but Freak Scene is always seeking submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.
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