Erika Simonian | All The Plastic Animals

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Erika Simonian Apple iTunes

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United States - NY - New York City

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Folk: Modern Folk Rock: Emo Moods: Mood: Dreamy
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All The Plastic Animals

by Erika Simonian

Sleepy, intimate, lullaby-esque
Genre: Folk: Modern Folk
Release Date: 

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Tracks

Available in: MP3, MP3-320, and FLAC file types.

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1. Food from the Cow
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2:23 album only
2. All the Plastic Animals
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3:40 album only
3. Pretty Good Wife
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3:30 album only
4. Bitter and Brittle
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4:03 album only
5. Brother
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3:50 album only
6. Sunny Day
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2:59 album only
7. Mr. Wrong
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2:06 album only
8. Dancing in the Dark
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4:10 album only
9. Self-Made Drama Machine
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2:58 album only
10. Number 2
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1:39 album only
11. Here Comes Love Again
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2:33 album only
12. Eternal Spinsterhood
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2:56 album only
13. Goodbye Song
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7:02 album only
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ABOUT THIS ALBUM


Album Notes
This album isn't for everyone. It's twisted, timeless and quiet. I guess in New York City where I live, it can be a struggle to get quiet.

I wanted to write an album that you'd play low in the middle of the night when you've woken up and don't want to wake anyone. When you are awake and alone in the dark, that's when things - you - feel most potent. It's part of the personal odyssey - facing yourself in that stillness, reflecting in that quietness.

As I was writing and recording these songs, I was aware that this was all a very specific moment in time, and that it would also pass. The desire to freeze that time was so strong, I wanted to savor it forever. So there was an elation to capturing it and a sadness anticipating its departure. You can hear both in the album. There's the sadness - in anticipating endings, while the elation lies in getting to experience it at all. The elation of being alive - too often it is found only in reflection.

So, some instructions: put on your headphones in the middle of the night, hit track one and let it play through. Or press track 1, then skip to 11. When that's finished, go back to 6. Listen and go where your inklings tell you. Enjoy the odyssey.


Reviews


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Christopher

Liz Phair meets your Mom.
When most indie artists include a cover song on a record it usually is the highlight of the sequence. You know the song already, the band puts a new spin on it, it sounds cool, and it has a way of making the original material on the record seem blase. Not the case here. Erika's version of "Dancing in the Dark" is well done, but it pales in comparison to her own material (on a related note, I also think that her last effort, "29 1/2", was a superior post-9/11 record to The Boss' - whether it meant to be or not). I've been listening to Erika's stuff for a number of years and I honestly can't believe how her work just gets better and better with each new recording/song. The title track might just be the most beautiful song she's ever recorded... all at once I want to co-opt it as a lullaby for my own child AND have Erika come to my house and sing it to ME as I drift into the sweetest dreams. Thus, the short version of the review: Liz Phair meets your Mom. This is the beautiful complexity of Erika's songbook - songs like "Mr. Wrong" and "Here Comes Love Again" are erotic in the same muted-yet-brash, almost-tongue-in-cheek style that you loved on "Exile in Guyville"..... but then songs like the aformentioned "All the Plastic Animals" just make you wish she was your mother. Disturbing? On the contrary, it is strangely comforting. And maybe that's the best way to describe her dissonant, yet undeniably embraceable, brand of indie rock. You're going to feel conflicted. But you're going to like it.

Spencer Kocher

Spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soothing, calm, relaxing! great vocals, great lyrics, and great songs!

Adam Cantor

This rocks.
This cd is awesome. Lyrically, and musically it is just great. It is refreshing to hear someone sing so beautifully from the heart.

Summer

nothing plastic about this album
All the Plastic Animals showcases Simonian's great lyrical sense of the vulnerable and the wry. It's a quiet, low-fi rocker, the kind you listen to late at night, driving home, or in your room with only a lamp on. My favorite songs are "Pretty Good Wife" and "Battered and Bitter," two back to back gems that speak to the tender, salty wounds in us all.