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The classically-infused and operatic ethereal sounds of Frances Cone bear the deep family roots of frontwoman Christina Cone’s upbringing and the more contemporary indie sounds of bands like Lucius. It took them a full five years to reach the point where they’ve fully flushed out their approach on Late Riser. The band has already created a buzz with their track “Arizona,” garnering millions of online streams and the opportunity to perform on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert in 2017. You may have also heard this album’s opening track, “Wide Awake,” released as a single this past October.
The band is centered on classically trained pianist and soprano vocalist Christian Cone supported by the otherworldly, ambient textures created by the band. Christina hails from a lineage of artists including her grandmother who studied at Juilliard in the 1930s and her father, a former opera singer. Following the release of her solo album Come Back in 2013, Cone met her musical and eventual life partner in bassist Andrew Doherty and together they formed this band which takes its name for her father and great-grandfather.
When Cone put together her solo album she worked with engineer/producer/drummer Dan Molad of Lucius and initially thought that her second album would primarily be a solo effort. With Doherty’s intervention and later both production and occasional songwriting, these songs began to take shape, the first five done while living in Brooklyn, with the additional five born after relocating to Nashville last year. They recorded in Nashville with Josh Kaler and, again, with Dan Molad.
Cone draws her inspiration from Chopin and other classical and gospel musical influences from her youth as well as contemporary artists like Rufus Wainwright, Patty Griffin, Justin Vernon and her friends in Lucius. But, hers is a rather spontaneous yet long drawn out songwriting process, that rather ironically, results in short songs, mostly in the three minute range.
As you may know, the sweeping soundscape of “Arizona” is about Cone’s reaction to her brother’s coming out of the closet. “Wide Awake,” like much of the fare, is about internal struggle. Cone takes an intellectual, rather cerebral view of how we perceive expectations and time itself. It’s a working out of accepting failures and thoughts in song. For example, “Failure” is an upbeat love song to the shortcomings that many of us possess.
The title track could easily be a descriptor of the band’s rather long protracted journey. It was written on a New York subway, Cone saying that most of it was in her head there and blossomed when she sang it to herself on the sidewalk. As with the bulk of the album, “Easy Love” carries a haunting timbre. The weeping pedal steel and harmonies in “Over Now” have a similar effect, but this song gathers force with driving guitars, synths and echoing voices as it closes.
The album finishes beautifully as if the band crafted a perfect cinematic ending. “All Along” is both somber and warm. The strings and distorted voices create a trancelike effect that builds to a crescendo before the music drops out and Cone sings alone “And I have loved you all along.” The song is about her mother and intersperses bits of melody from “Arizona” intentionally in familial homage.
Cone is a crusader for patience and that steadfastness and fastidiousness comes across. As the title says, it’s been a long steady climb for this band, who is poised to see their trajectory rise dramatically.
