REVIEWS

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Ayria
Flicker

Alfa-Matrix

Posted: Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

On her second album, Ayria’s Jennifer Parkin did all the songwriting and composing herself, resulting in an album that, surprisingly enough, shows far more variety than her debut, which was written with Shaun Frandsen of Glis. With Flicker, Parkin seems more aware of her own shortcomings and finds better ways to work around them. To counteract her natural perkiness, she adds distortion to the vocals on more aggressive tunes like “Selling Rebellion” and “Post Apocalyptic Girl,” while taking the exact opposite approach with “My Revenge on the World,” which embraces the idea of cute EBM with a chorus that would make a perfect rhyme for jumping rope in combat boots. “Infiltrating My Way Through the System” and “My Device” are excellent club tracks, with clean but heavy minimal beat programming and catchy vocal hooks reminiscent of a female-fronted Covenant, but it’s the slower pieces that really show off Parkin’s talent as both a singer and a programmer. “Pink Dress” is down-tempo but rocking, with big electric guitars and wonderfully realistic drum samples, while “St. Edith” laces brooding cellos over a subtle trip-hop beat. Album closer “Lovely Day,” an extended ballad adorned with looped acoustic strums and rich synthesized atmospheres, features Parkin’s best vocal work ever, delicate and sensual without feeling at all forced. Parkin has really come into her own with Flicker, and there are more than enough heavy beats and memorable melodies on this album to please EBM and synthpop fans alike.