tek's rating: 
The Flash Girls were a folk duo consisting of Emma Bull and Lorraine Garland, who released three albums between 1993 and 2001. I first became aware of them through their sort-of involvement in the comic book series "Sovereign Seven". I feel like the Flash Girls always sing with some kind of accent that I can't really place. They're from Minnesota, but that's not how they sound. They don't sound American at all (usually). More British or Irish or something, but not quite like those accents. Maybe it's more mid-Atlantic. Whatever it is, I like it.
Play Each Morning Wild Queen
AllMusic; Discogs
This is the Flash Girls' third and final album, released in 2001. I probably got it in 2013, and I'm reviewing it in 2024. In the liner notes, each song comes with a very short story by Emma Bull, before the lyrics. (Actually, the may all be disconnected snippets of a single story.) Unless I indicate otherwise, lyrics are by Lorraine Garland.
1. "Driving with Noel": This one's just instrumental. It's nice. Sounds vaguely Celtic (which is true of most or all of the songs here), but later on there's just drums that sound to me like something other than Celtic... could be Caribbean, or Japanese, or African, or I don't know what. But whatever it is, I like it.
2. "Threnody": I didn't know what the title meant, so I googled it. Wikipedia has an explanation, but this song sounds more upbeat than I would expect a threnody to be. Apparently the lyrics are by Dorothy Parker.
3. "Lily of the West": This is a traditional song that has been recorded by many artists. I think the only one I've heard before was by The Chieftains, which of course sounded much more Irish than this version. I think I prefer that one over this, but this is good, too.
4. "Buckingham Palace/Dunford's Fancy": The liner notes don't include lyrics for this song, but it says they are by A.A. Milne, and can be found in "When We Were Very Young".
5. "A Meaningful Dialogue": This one was written by Neil Gaiman. It's fun and kind of funny.
6. "Race to the Moon": Lyrics by Garland, Bull, Adam Stemple, and Steven Brust. This one is also fun.
7. "The Wine With The Stars In It/Mr. And Mrs. O'Mara": This is another instrumental one.
8. "All Purpose Folk Song (Child Ballad #1)": Lyrics by Neil Gaiman. It's quite amusing.
9. "Sure of Me": Lyrics by Todd Menton. This one feels kind of like a country song.
10. "Ride On/Reverend Guinness": Lyrics by Jimmy McCarthy / Traditional. Whatever that means.
11. "Personal Thing": Lyrics by Neil Gaiman.
12. "Nottingham Ale": This is another traditional song. It's a fun sort of drinking song. Then there's a hidden track that starts around 4:20. It's not a song, or anything. I don't know what it is.
So anyway, I really like the whole album, but I'm not sure how memorable I find any of the songs (unlike their second album).