FRANK BLACK
Frankblackfrancis (Sonic Unyon/SpinArt)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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Our man Frank has finally decided to release his rough demo tape for the first Pixies album, but owing to the guilt of jilting his fans with such throw away stuff, he's tacked on another disc of reworked classic tracks. What a guy. Frankly Frank, you should've just kept it to the demo disc. Despite the sparse nature it has a verve and naivete that's utterly charming, especially when the voice crackles and there's no big wall of guitars to ride on. It solidifies the fact that the Pixies material is timeless, and the unexpected reunion may not be such a terrible idea after all. The second disc just messes with the standards for the sake of messing with the standards. An interesting experiment, but a forced one that doesn't work as well as it does on paper. Just further proof that Frank is after all one of those kooky geniuses, capable of brilliant hooks and bombastic spectacles in quick succession.

© 2004 - John Sekerka