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| Dia Frampton - Red |
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| Tuesday, 24 January 2012 17:21 | |||
 While Red possesses a sweet-and-sincere quality, the album has a few too many wince-worthy moments and not quite enough wows for me to recommend it.
ALBUM REVIEW
Title: Red
Artist: Dia Frampton
Genre: Pop
Label: Universal Republic
Release Date: December 6th, 2011
  Reviewed by Joshua Grant
Though Red is her solo debut, it is not Dia Frampton's first foray into the music biz. She used to have a band with her sister called Meg & Dia. They released Here, Here, Here in 2009, enjoying some success — the even got a song on the TMNT soundtrack -— before being dropped from the Warner Bros. label in 2010.
Now Dia's back with Red, a pop album that flirts with a range of genres — from the infectious indy beat of “Walk Away” to the country tinged tracks “the Broken Ones” and “I Will”. Though Frampton herself appears to be an eclectic and dynamic performer, the impressive array of musicians listed as collaborators likely helped some of the tracks pop. Does “Bullseye” sound a lot like a Florence + the Machine track? It should! The Machine (Isabelle Summers) co-wrote and produced it. But, despite the number of musical heavy weights that she calls up, Frampton manages to keep the record sounding mostly like her own, not some indy hits of 2011 compilation.
And Dia herself? Dia oozes cute.
Unfortunately, the album has a few too many wince-worthy moments and not quite enough wows for me to recommend it. The first track, the
 single “Don't Kick the Chair,” is an attempt at an upbeat dancey-inspirational with an important message (I bet you can't guess what it is), but right around the start of Kid Cudi's incongruous rap section I am reminded how much I want to listen to Robyn instead. Robyn would probably let me kick furniture.My other major gripe is the weird gear shift into the pop-country track “I Will” featuring her mentor Blake Shelton. Though it sounds quite sincere and sweet, it sounds like something off of the radio station that my dentist plays while I try to focus on the soothing tooth drills. It is a brave decision to put such a sincere-and-sweet country track on an indy-pop album, but, I think, a bad one. That being said, there are certainly some people who really like heartfelt country ballads, and if you count yourself as one of those people, this might be up your alley.
For the rest of you: don't kick the chair (or change the record) yet, though. It does get better. “Isabella” and later “Daniel” are simply produced but tremendously charming indy-folk tunes. In “The Broken Ones,” you can look forward to the the lyric you don't have to drive / with your headlights on / it's a pocket knife / not a gift from God delivered with an adorable acidity that she would do well to foster for her next release.
Check out the clip here:
The absolute stand-out track on this album is the lo-fi western love story “Billy the Kid.” This one was a collaboration with Mark Foster and Isom Innis from Foster the People. It kicks off with a tasty tex-mex beat that simmers under the verses before bursting into a brilliantly hooky chorus.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about the album and Dia herself. Though she doesn't seem to be able to rival the belting power power of the aforementioned Florence, she is appealing in the quirky-cute way that powers Zooey Deschanel's musical career. Personally, I probably won't listen to this album again, with the exception of “Billy the Kid”, but if she releases another album, I will check it out — she has charm and potential.
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