AMG Review of Bread and Jam for Frances [14 Tracks]

Dean Carlson
All Music Guide

Bread and Jam for Frances took the darkwave pretensions of Switchblade Symphony's previous material and pushed it through an even more stylized electronic filter. Bristol beats were positioned next to hip-hop scratches and regular guitar riffs and the band would experiment around the goth scene's regimented bleakness to surprising effect. Tina Root's vocals were as unreliable as ever -- sometimes disturbing, sometimes pantomime -- but the new flamboyantly trip-hop approach to songs like "Soldiers" and "Harpsichord" and the large majority of the rest of the album suited the band well. [Cleopatra issued a 14-track edition of the album in 2006.]