Scary Fragile is the second album by Australian singer–songwriter Butterfly Boucher.

Scary Fragile
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 2, 2009
Recorded2005[1]-2007[2]
GenreFolk
LabelSituation Operation
ProducerButterfly Boucher, David Kahne
Butterfly Boucher chronology
Flutterby
(2003)
Scary Fragile
(2009)
Butterfly Boucher
(2012)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
Paste[4]

History edit

After touring as an opening act for Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow tour, Boucher was called to the studio by her record label Geffen Records in 2004 to record the follow-up to her album Flutterby. Spending over a year deciding on producer David Kahne and waiting for him to become available,[5] Boucher did most of the pre-production for the album at her home studio, doing the guitar, bass guitar, electronic keyboard, lead vocals and backing vocals[6] Production for the album began on October 24, 2005.[1] Although Boucher had intended to record the album with a live band, the idea was abandoned after Kahne listened to the demos Boucher had produced, and liked her playing all the instruments herself.[7]

Scary Fragile was originally completed in January 2006.[5][8][9] Claiming to not "want to be too deep" about her album titles,[10] Boucher states the title was chosen because "it didn't mean anything", and "can mean whatever you want as well." The other title considered for the album was Just Because.[8]

Not knowing how to market the album, Geffen stalled on releasing Scary Fragile before offering Boucher to affiliate Polydor Records to release the album in the United Kingdom first.[8][9] After the album was found to be too "American-sounding" for the UK, Boucher re-recorded the album for the UK market with a Swedish producer.[5][8] In February 2007, the album track "A Bitter Song" was used on the hit American television series Grey's Anatomy during a pivotal season arch, after which it was released as a single on iTunes.[11] The re-recorded album was completed in June 2007, at which point Boucher began previewing one-off album tracks at irregular intervals on her MySpace page, on what she referred to as "Oops Days".[2]

Although Polydor had set a release date for the album in autumn 2007,[8] Geffen blocked the album' release, agreeing to allow the UK label to release the album only on the condition that the UK affiliate bought Boucher out of her debt to Interscope-Geffen-A&M for over US$1 million.[5] Polydor refused, and after negotiations through 2008,[5][8][12] Boucher was released from her record contract,[13] and gained the master recording rights for both versions of Scary Fragile.[5][8] Boucher released the album with the original recordings[8] on June 2, 2009 digitally via her own imprint Situation Operation.[6] The single "Gun for a Tongue" was released digitally on May 12, 2009.[14] The album was released on Compact Disc in stores worldwide on September 15, 2009 via Nettwerk Records.[15]

The song "Gun for a Tongue" served as the theme song for The Lying Game. The song "A Bitter Song" was sampled by $uicideboy$ on their song "Kill Yourself (Part III)".

Track listing edit

  • All songs written by Butterfly Boucher
No.TitleLength
1."I Found Out"3:07
2."For the Love of Love"3:21
3."Just One Tear"3:30
4."Gun for a Tongue"3:08
5."Scary Fragile"3:04
6."Bright Red"3:32
7."Keeper"3:06
8."They Say You Grow"3:48
9."Keeping Warm"3:00
10."To Feel Love"4:13
11."A Bitter Song"2:30

Further tracks hosted on Butterfly's MySpace page during "Oops Days" that are off-cuts and do not feature on Scary Fragile:

  1. "All of the Things"
  2. "Looking at Me"
  3. "Don't Look Now"
  4. "You'll See"

References edit

  1. ^ a b Butterfly Boucher (26 October 2005). "Bloggody blog blog". Retrieved 6 June 2009.
  2. ^ a b Butterfly Boucher (17 June 2007). "What the hell is "OOPS DAY!!"?". Retrieved 14 July 2007.
  3. ^ Allmusic review
  4. ^ "Butterfly Boucher: Scary Fragile". 20 October 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Moore, Tracy (3 June 2009). "Hey, young Nashville band—want a major-label deal? Read this first". Nashville Scene. City Press. pp. 4–6. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  6. ^ a b "Butterfly Boucher set to release her second album 'Scary Fragile' June 2 via Situation Operation". 18 May 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2009.
  7. ^ "A conversation with singer-songwriter-musician Butterfly Boucher". 4 June 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Lynch, Lorrie (1 June 2009). "After a long wait, Butterfly Boucher is back with 'Scary Fragile'". USA Weekend. Gannett Company. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
  9. ^ a b Silverman, Jack (28 September 2006). "Butterfly Boucher". Nashville Scene. City Press LLC. Retrieved 30 October 2006.
  10. ^ Cook, Shanon (27 May 2009). "Butterfly Boucher flies high with Grey's, fans' support". Music & Conversation with Shannon Cook. CNN. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  11. ^ Butterfly Boucher (18 February 2007). "New song to be available…". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  12. ^ Butterfly Boucher (6 September 2008). "ELLE MACHO IS HERE! & Next Big Nashville details". Retrieved 10 January 2009.
  13. ^ Butterfly Boucher (5 January 2009). "I have a good feeling about this year". Retrieved 10 January 2009.
  14. ^ "Butterfly Boucher to release her much anticipated second album, Scary Fragile, June 2nd, 2009". 4 May 2009. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  15. ^ "Butterfly Boucher announces worldwide release of her acclaimed second album Scary Fragile on September 15 via Nettwerk". 16 July 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2009.