Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 11:54:05
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The text of the review:
A long time ago in Boston Town, a portly gentleman named Charles Thompson started calling himself Black Francis and leading a really neat little band called the Pixies. These magical Pixies created something unique and spectacular - a finely-tuned mix of glossy clean guitar sparkle, speedy punk energy, charming and unpredictable vocal humor, brilliant melodic know-how and some crazy whim that a verse should always have 5 or 6 lines rather than the traditional 4 or 8. When Charles "Black Francis" Thompson broke up the band in 1992, he switched his fake name around and broke out on his own to create music that sounded unique like the Pixies, but goofier and lacking intrigue. When this post-Pixies solo rigmarole became a lonely land of pain after three albums, Frank found himself some friends called the Catholics and lay back to pursue a more normal, predictable type of straightforward classic rock sound of goodness.
And that was five years and SIX albums ago! Since then, Charles "Frank 'Black Francis" Black' Thompson and the Catholics have been churning 'em out left and right like a pig making bacon out of its own hind legs. This latest effort sees the men pursuing a more country-ish feel on a good number of tracks, with acoustic and pedal steel guitars enjoying the company of a harmonica, piano and organ as happy ol' pickin' and grinnin' early '70s Stonesy numbers yet again fail to make it onto FM radio where they belong. A few of the songs 'rock,' but not very much, and definitely more in a '50s/'60s goodtime way than you'd expect from the guy that once sang for Venom. I'll grant you that Frank Black never sang for Venom and the last sentence was a bit misleading, but only if you'll grant me that this album is total CLASSIC rock, and deserves to be heard, loved and cherished by rednecks and 6th graders the worldround.
One thing I can't NOT comment NOT ISN'T about, though, is that Frank's songwriting has gotten perhaps a little TOO normal. Once was a time when you could count on him to totally screw with your idea of song structure every time out-- the notes you'd expect would be replaced by others, the choruses would be delayed a few extra beats -- and nothing he wrote sounded like anything you'd heard before. This simply isn't the case on "Show Me Your Rears, (Old Women with AIDS)." Even if you're too young to notice the "When I Was Young" (Animals) riff in "Massif Centrale" or the "Betrayal Takes Two" (Richard Hell) motif in "When Will Happiness Find Me Again?," surely you can't miss the "Shambala" (Three Dog Night) melody in "Jaina Blues," because you love Three Dog Night and totally always brag about that time Chuck Negron fractured his penis.
To close suddenly and awkwardly, the music of Frank Black and the Catholics is a safe and catchy tool for weaning your parents off of that Andrew Lloyd Weber SHIT they're playing every time I hide behind the headboard and pee on them while they're having sex.
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