| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| vilainde |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 01:49:41
Nice review + interview in today's Les Inrocks (French mag). It's 3 pages including a full page picture, a nice review and some Frank talk, probably from the same press conference as the article in Liberation posted last week. Les Inrocks usually give bad reviews of his records (since FB&TC) so this one is a nice change. You can read the review online here:
http://www.lesinrocks.com/frameset.cfm?url_1=DetailCritique.cfm?iditem=178390&url_2=home_mm.html&rub=chronique
Here it goes:
<<Tout a commencé par une franche blague : il y a quelques mois, MTV annonçait l’enregistrement d’un duo entre Frank Black et Courtney Love. Mais c’était juste pour rigoler. On ne sait pas vraiment qui, de Frank Black ou du journaliste, l’a dégainée le premier, mais l’improbable histoire a circulé et – parce que les meilleures sont les plus courtes (Cobain) –, Frank Black a dû démentir.
Ce n’est pas avec la veuve Cobain qu’il chante Strange Goodbye sur Honeycomb, mais avec son ancienne femme à lui – un bien étrange au revoir, de fait, puisqu’ils étaient séparés au moment de l’enregistrement. Ils ont divorcé depuis, et l’ex-madame Black pourrait demander sa part sur les ventes de Honeycomb. Pour le bien joli duo, et plus généralement pour avoir laissé son ancien Franky de mari avec le cœur en miettes, dans un état de délabrement personnel propice à un nouveau départ artistique. Il était temps. La discographie de Frank Black commençait à faire peur : des albums solo nombreux (parfois deux dans la même année) et inégaux, et la passion des fans s’émousse, à peine relancée par l’éternel retour des Pixies, depuis toujours dans les bacs et à nouveau sur scène depuis l’an dernier.
Le Frank Black nouveau est arrivé, encore plus gros et toujours content, mais avec un album d’un genre nouveau. Un album à l’ancienne, mais qui sonne beaucoup plus frais que les anciens albums de Frank Black. Sans aucun des tics metal-punk qui ont souvent enlaidi ses chansons passées, le nouveau Frank Black est quasiment un disque d’adult-rock. Déjà, c’est un disque enregistré avec des adultes, des grands, voire des très grands : Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, Anton Fig – des musiciens dont les noms figurent sur les plus beaux disques soul et country (ou americana au sens large) des sixties. Des instrumentistes de légende dont l’ego est entièrement au service du songwriting, des musiciens soul qui ont apporté aux chansons de Frank Black la fluidité et le supplément d’âme qui leur manquait. En écoutant Honeycomb, on ne pense jamais aux Pixies – et c’est finalement une bonne nouvelle.>>
The last line is great: "While listening to Honeycomb, you never think about the Pixies - and that's actually good news."
I'll try to scan the full article tonight.
Denis
I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul! |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| The Marsist |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 07:59:31
franks looking good hes lost alot of weight
"i had to store my urine in jars so the wizards could not enchant me"
-Bowie |
| selkie bride |
Posted - 07/16/2005 : 09:33:06
What an offensive review! I agree that Honeycomb is good, but it's not an exception to the rule. To suggest that FB's previous songs were in any way "ugly" is... well... silly. And to say that hired guns are what provide Black's songs with fluidity and heart detracts from his genius.
It's a beautiful day... |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/13/2005 : 10:35:40
You've got some neck saying that!! ;) |
| kathryn |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 12:25:16
Can I be a girl for a second and say how nice Frank's neck looks? Thank you.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
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| Frog in the Sand |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 12:18:04
One thousand thanks Denis. Je ne me serais jamais remis de devoir acheter les Inrocks...
Join the Cult of France / And get Honeycomb weeks in advance |
| Joey Joe Jo Jr. Chabadoo |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 06:02:12
A reggae album, THAT would be interesting!!! yes with a feeling like Fiddle Riddle which is in the top twenty unusual songs along with Whispering Weeds, a pearl on Black Letter Day.
Raggae music is boring. That's a fact for me. Bob Marley was lucky to live in the 70's and the production at that time was good for "world music" (still not know under this name)... But strangely enough, I love the Serge Gainsbourg Raggae period... And the world raggae taste of Brian Eno's works. Then, yes I would be very interesting in hearing a made in Black raggae.
This is a kind of music that can be very cynical if you are not a poor junk Jamaican...
I would also love to hear a symphony conducted by Frank Black... as well as Corsicans Polyphonies...
**** |
| jediroller |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 05:33:44
Merci, ça m'évitera d'acheter les Inrocks :)
My evil twin would lie and steal
And he would stink of sex-appeal |
| kathryn |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 04:41:49
Thank you, Denis! This is beyond cool.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
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| Carl |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 04:09:55
He looks like the fifth member of Metallica in those pics!! :D |
| The Holiday Son |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 03:52:56
Yes, you did understand it right !
Hopefully the whole album will be like Fiddle Riddle. |
| velvety |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 03:37:17
My french is even worse than my english, but did I understand this correctly: Frank wants to make a reggae album? |
| vilainde |
Posted - 07/12/2005 : 03:07:00
While the pictures are up again (somehow I predict it won't last...), I scanned the article:
Denis
I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul! |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 17:57:09
well good thing Frank didn't listen...beacause wouldn't have Honeycomb! |
| Frog in the Sand |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 03:08:35
Less than two years ago the same reviewer implored FB to bury his solo ambitions and reform the Pixies...
Hang'im high.
Join the Cult of France / And get Honeycomb weeks in advance |
| vilainde |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 02:01:57
Babelfished:
<<All started with a good joke: a few months ago, MTV announced the recording of a duet between Frank Black and Courtney Love. But it was just for a laugh. We don't really know who, of Frank Black or the journalist, told it first, but the improbable story circulated and - because the best is shortest [untranslatable joke] -, Frank Black had to refute.
It's not with the Cobain widow that he sings Strange Goodbye on Honeycomb, but with his own ex-wife - a very strange goodbye, indeed, since they were separate at the time of the recording. They divorced since, and the ex-Mrs Black could ask for her share on the sales of Honeycomb. For the quite pretty duet, and more generally for having left her ex-husband with the heart in pieces, in a state of personal decay favourable to a new artistic departure. It was time. Frank Black's discography started to look scary: many solo albums (sometimes two in the same year) and unequal, and the passion of the fans blunts, hardly started again by the eternal return of Pixies, since always in the stores and back on stage since last year.
The new Frank Black has arrived, even larger and still happy, but with an album of a new kind. An old-fashioned album, but which sounds much fresher than the Frank Black's former records. Without any the metal-punk tics which often made ugly his previous songs, the new album is almost an adult-rock record. First, it's a disc recorded with adults, great ones, even of the greatest: Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, Anton Fig - musicians whose names are printed on the most beautiful soul and country (or americana in the broad sense) records of the sixties. Instrumentalists of legend whose ego is entirely dedicated to the songwriting, soul musicians who brought to the songs of Frank Black fluidity and the supplement of heart they needed. While listening to Honeycomb, one never thinks of the Pixies - and it is finally a good news.>>
Denis
I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul! |
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