 |
THE FROGS
Hopscotch Lollipop Sunday Surprise (Scratchie Records)
Reviewed by Holly Day
Well, they've been threatening to do it for years, and it looks like they finally did it: The Frogs have finally put out a record composed almost entirely of love songs. And, while they have been guilty of writing love songs in the past, this is their first collection of songs that touches on, for the most part, "normal" love, and not the gerontophiliac, necrophiliac, or pedophiliac odes that trademarked their earlier albums. Sure, there's the occasional reference to nipple clamps and the sex/violence paradigm, but for the most part, this is awfully tame.
The strength of this album, surprisingly, is the musical arrangements. The opening track, "Whisper," is beautiful. It is such a pleasant, melancholy, pleading love song it should, in a perfect world, find a spot on every radio station's regular rotation. The song even features a guest vocal appearance by none other than ex-Skid Row hair metal hooligan Sebastian Bach. The lyrics themselves are simple and pretty, with lots of vaguely sexual references to flowers and flying and cream-still, completely inoffensive. Another surprising musical coup is the performance of "Bad Daddy." Against the lyrics concerning incest and offering children to pitbulls is an orchestral backdrop of synth horns, baroque keyboards, acoustic guitars, bells, harmonicas, and glimmery washes that are worthy of Phil Specter. Another track, "Better Than God," makes its studio debut after being a standard part of the Frogs' live set for at least the past two tours, and it's worth the wait. Live, the song is almost comical, performed by a usually inebriated Jimmy Flemion howling the falsetto chorus while brother Dennis beats time on a set of synth drums. On the CD, Jimmy hits all the notes just right, backed by electric guitar fills that sound so much better than the cheesy, staticky guitar that makes its appearance at every show, and what sounds like a full, real percussion kit is utilized. There are so many styles of music mastered here, from metal to folk to psychedelica, that it almost seems as though this must be material that's been secretly molding on shelves for years, waiting for the right time to be unleashed on the world, instead of a collection of work done in the short years since their last record came out.
© 2001 - Holly Day