This is the second of the two Rasputina albums I have. Over time, the band has had sixteen different members, a pretty high number for what is nominally a trio. However, the band really revolves around a single person, cellist/vocalist Melora Creager. Therefore, the backing musicians are completely different from How We Quit the Forest, released just two albums (albeit six years) prior. Also, rather than being a full cello trio, Jonathan TeBeest, the first male to achieve full membership in the band, is a drummer not a cellist, so the cellos are down to two, a reality from this album onward.
I sort of go back and forth on which album I like better. How We Quit the Forest has a clutch of really good songs, but they are stuffed with a bunch of filler tracks. This album doesn't have any songs that could compete with the good songs of the other album, but, aside from a couple tiny tracks of connective tissue, it has a more consistent quality and makes for a better listening-through album. Also, the vocals are delivered a bit lower in pitch and the high-pitched vibrato style is pretty much gone. Content-wise, Frustration Plantation has more of a theme do it, sort of a nightmare vision of the antebellum South.
Since I don't have any of the other albums, this pretty much closes the book on Rasputina for this blog until I track down some more. I have plenty of directions I could go, from the debut Thanks for the Ether, to the one I skipped unintentionally (Cabin Fever), or perhaps to continue onward in the chronology to Sister Kinderhook. Although the band's studio releases have slowed down over time, they are still around.
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