| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| bazza |
Posted - 07/20/2005 : 08:08:08
Another positive review from Irelands top entertainment website.
http://entertainment.ie/reviews/review.asp?ID=3986&SubCat=CD
Frank Black - Honeycomb
Shortly before the Pixies' triumphant comeback tour last year, Frank Black went into a Nashville studio with some veteran session musicians and knocked out this album in a mere four days. Now that his old band are back in business, Honeycomb will probably get more attention than any of his other solo releases - which is just as well, as it's easily one of the best things he's ever done. This is a record packed with oddities and riches, including a cover of the soul standard 'Dark End of the Street', a novelty Elvis song and a break-up duet with his ex-wife Jean. The mood throughout is charming and understated, with a rootsy vibe that nicely suits his richly mellow singing voice. Looks like that old Black Magic can still weave its spell when given the right material to work with.
4 stars out of 4.
I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.
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| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Jontiven |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 09:08:25
re: Hot Press review
Some reviewers just can't help but suck ass. This has been a problem since the dawn of time, and there's no getting around it.
My apologies to his mum for having to put up with such a spoiled child.
bye,
Jon |
| vilainde |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 08:19:52
Come on, who played a prank to Hot Press and put the Ben Harper & Blind Boys of Alabama record in a Honeycomb CD case?
Denis
I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul! |
| dublindays |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 08:16:54
Hot press Interview for what it's worth
Frank Black
Honeycomb
(Cooking Vinyl)
21 Jul 2005
Middle age can cause strange wheels to rotate in the rock star’s mind. Turning 50 persuaded David Bowie he could make a drum and bass album (he couldn’t); mid-life marked REM’s descent into formulaic dreariness and blue face-paint. For U2, artistic relevance has receded at roughly the same rate as The Edge’s hairline.
Frank Black, who at 40 ought be too young for such inanity, seems to lately have contracted a dose of pre-retirement daftness. How else to explain Honeycomb, in which the howling dervish of ‘80s indie-rock seeks reinvention as a mannered southern crooner?
Aghast perhaps at the unmitigated crassness of The Pixies reunion – glorious cabaret, but cabaret nonetheless – Black’s first solo album in a decade (his regular backing players The Catholics are on sabbatical) hungers for authenticity.
To this end, Black has recruited the sort of musicians for whom the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack – a project which conveyed an unlikely glamour upon a generation of mutton-chopped blue-grass loyalists – felt like a lottery win.
In the credits are listed such good ‘ol boys as Buddy Miller, Reggie Young and Spooner Oldham and for students of southern soul, Honeycomb will prove a mostly rewarding experiment. Black’s voice has acquired a whiskey-soaked tremble, as though he’s been gargling on woe every morning.
His guitar playing, too, comes down with a case of the mopes, segueing from steel-pedal twang to...well, a different kind of steel-pedal twang.
When the formula falls into a stride – and occasionally it does – Black’s country impulses make a crude sort of sense. He delivers ‘I Burn Today’ as a spirited lament; ‘Violet’ piles on gut-bucket melodies and honky-tonk rhythms.
Stretched over an entire album though, Black’s conceit – that ‘authenticity’ is merely a question of roping in some grizzled musicians and singing in an exaggerated croon – quickly frays at the edges. This summer’s Pixies tour can’t come soon enough.
Ed Power
dublindays |
| Stuart |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 05:02:05
Good move!
This is a high class bureau de change, not some Punch & Judy show on the seafront at Margate! |
| bazza |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 02:21:52
its a pretty negative review to be honest andy - i dont have a sub to the website (www.hotpress.com) and i didnt buy the issue as it had liam gallagher on the cover!
Maybe, just once, someone will call me "sir" without adding, "you're making a scene."
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| Ten Percenter |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 01:26:47
What ever happened to the Hot press review, Barry?
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/20/2005 : 08:22:04
Cheers, Baz. 4 out 0f 4, top marks again! :) |
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