| Ragged Atlas | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Cosa Brava |
| Cover: | CosaBrava AlbumCover RaggedAtlas.jpg |
| Recorded: | December 2008 |
| Studio: | Tiny Telephone, San Francisco |
| Label: | Intakt (Switzerland) |
| Producer: | Fred Frith, Intakt Records |
| Next Title: | The Letter |
| Next Year: | 2012 |
Ragged Atlas is a studio album by Fred Frith's United States experimental rock group Cosa Brava. It was recorded in San Francisco in December 2008 and was released by Intakt Records in Switzerland on March 5, 2010. Ragged Atlas was the band's first album, and is largely instrumental with a little singing on five of the thirteen the tracks. Frith composed all the music, with lyric contributions on "Lucky Thirteen" by Rebby Sharp, a singer/guitarist Frith had worked with in Orthotonics.
John Kelman, Nic Jones and Mark Corroto wrote favorable reviews of Ragged Atlas at All About Jazz, whereas Beppe Colli at Clouds and Clocks had mixed feeling about the album.
Kelman described Cosa Brava as "the perfect nexus between [Frith's] more accessible yet still left-leaning music for dance, [...] and the more challenging structures of his 1970s work with Henry Cow". He said that Ragged Atlas "transcends time and genre" and has "[b]road dynamics, a blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation, fine compositional detail, and surprisingly memorable melodies". Kelman said that it "stands as one of 2010's most auspicious debuts".
Corroto called the album a "classic 1970s rock opera", and described the music as a mixture of "folk, Celtic, modern chamber, Latin, funk, Eastern, and prog-rock". He said that Frith "never stray[ed] far from joyous music making". Jones wrote that there is an "impishness about the music, a sense of fun that [...] stems from the joy of discovery". As an example he said that the "arguably banal lyric" in the track "Falling Up (for Amanda)" is elevated to another level by the supple music of Carla Kihlstedt's violin". Jones said that "Tall Story" works because of the musicianship of the group, and that in lesser hands it "might come off as so much fluff".
Colli was critical of the album, saying that the volume is "deafening", and that the music is "often tacky, bombastic, as if looking for an applause". He did like some of the tracks, for example "Lucky Thirteen", which he said has a "meditative mood, fine unison from vocals and violin", and "Tall Story", with its "light, fine theme". Overall, however, Colli described the album as "kitsch".
Source: CD liner notes written by Frith; all quotes by Frith.