National Music Reviews
Lauren Mann & The Fairly Odd Folk
Over Land and Sea
Wanderer Records
Street: 04.13
Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk = Cotton Jones + The Watson Twins
Over Land and Sea starts out with a force that immediately captures your attention. The first song, “Fragile,” was stuck in my head for a solid two days. With the intensity that the album has, I can only imagine they can rock the fuck out during a live show, and with the amount of touring they do, I hope they continue to keep up the stamina. The Fairly Odd Folk use an ample amount of instruments aside from the typical drum and guitar setup, so bear with me while I name them off: OL&S includes a glockenspiel, trombone, flute, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, banjo, cello and trumpet. Far from sounding like a marching band, the production of these instruments combined is a blast. I especially enjoyed “The Weight of the World,” which I’m pretty sure had an old-school organ in it to add to the list. –Brinley Froelich