Customer Reviews

Teenager of the Year

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My friend Joe just called from his car as he's driving across Ohio tonight just to thank me for making him buy this. Another friend left it in his duffel and his Dad became severely addicted to it. I once cranked it out the top of a decapitated VW Bug and the neighbors thought about calling the cops until they heard the music. When aliens come and we have to make a case as to why they shouldn't eat us, we should just hit play. This is all you need to make it through this sordid and gilded life. Play it loud, play it proud. Too bad it can't get a Nobel.

My wife hates Frank Black. And I really have to ask myself sometimes why I like him....random,smug,obscure,obtuse,lyrics from the far range of sanity and sense. But here is the truth. I love this album...love it. It is long and spotty,like a dachsund dalmatian mix,but when it rocks it rocks. Obscure yes, but who else would write a punk song about the three stooges. I am not sure there is anything close to a consistent Frank Black album....he seems to be a guy set to break rules, explore, confuse and ultimately rock. But you may want to find it on a listening station, and check it out. It isn't for my wife....it may not be for you.

There's no doubt that this is FB's best album, his only solo effort to compare favourably with the output of his former alias Mr Francis (that's not to say that his other solo albums aren't worth checking out). Its a sprawling, protean effort- an eclectic and defiantly odd-ball collection. At times it sounds like The Fall (Whatever Happened To Pong?), at other moments more like Dire Straits (Calistan, Speedie Marie), but it NEVER sounds much like the Pixies. The sound is cleaner and poppier, smoothing off the edges of the Pixies' abrasiveness, but the weirdness, the bug-eyed humour (and the sheer quality) remains.

Despite its sprawling nature, this is nonetheless a very accessible and remarkably consistent album. I don't agree at all with people who consider it uneven. Only the cod-reggae of "Fiddle Riddle" has me reaching for the skip button. But its true that Frank Black's taste occasionally fails him- Lyle Workman's awful guitar solos on the otherwise excellent Two Reelers and Ole Mulholland stray too far into tasteless rock territory for my liking. But that's what makes the guy interesting- he clearly doesn't give a monkey's about being cool or fashionable, and its this refreshing eclecticism which makes this singularly odd collection one of the most under-rated albums of the 1990s.

There are two true rock and roll geniuses in history. Besides Ian Anderson, there is Frank Black. I am convinced everything Black touches turns to gold. Before the likes pf Green Day and Rancid, truly inferior bands, Black created and perfected the neo-punk attitude with gems like Thalossacracy, Hostess With the Mostest, and Bad, Wicked World on 1993's Teenager of the Year. But bludgeoning hard rock assaults are only one weapon in Black's truly amazing arsenal. Calistan, Speedy Marie, and Superabound are just excellently written, purely original, and deeply powerful pop rock tunes that are easily likable for all tastes. Black is the 90's premier wordsmith, too. "If all you see /is violence/then I make a plea/ yeah-in their defense/don't you know they speak/ vaudevillian?" in which Black defends the Three Stooges phenomenon in Two Reelers. "My brother and me used to play it down at the bar/taking money from guys more used to the playing of cards" opens Whatever Happened To Pong?, and the album itself. I am a tremendous Pixies fan, and when I heard they were breaking up, I was truly disappointed. But what the music industry, and more importantly, his devoted fans, would have missed without that fortunate divorce would be immeasurable. Frank Black is the 90's answer to Bowie. But how Bowie had more success in redefining and influencing his generation's music befuddles me. Frank Black IS the 90's most underrated artist, and Teenager of the Year is one of the ten best rock albums EVER. Buy the CD, and the rest of your top 40 "alternative" rock collection will quickly be collecting dust...guaranteed.

Somehow, I made it through the nineties without ever hearing Frank Black, despite the fact that those were my teenage, angsty years. It wasn't until several months ago that I'd decided to download a few tracks of his, and immediately became hooked.

I'm still an FB neophyte, but I'm definitely signing up for my card. Teenager of the Year is a generous album, with 20 songs ranging from punk to pop to ska to rockabilly. I can't claim to enjoy all of the tracks, but given that there are so many, I still come away with as many favorites as appear on most artists' albums. Tracks like Superabound, Calistan, Speedy Marie, and Abstract Plain are worth the price of admission outright.

I don't have a broad musical experience to compare his work to, but the most obvious comparison I could come up with is Lou Reed. Black's delivery has the same easy, heroin-hazed understatement that made Reed sound like he was delivering his vocals to no one in particular. Black can also belt out a screaming tune when the chord calls for it, as witnessed on Headache. The guy's just got a memorable, unique voice, which stands out in this age of Nickelback-esque studio singer styles.

Something else I immediately noticed about Black was his fondness of repetition. If something sounds cool to sing 4 times in a loop, he'll do it. I have a personal penchant for repetition, a penchant for repetition, and trancelike arrangements, so this suits me fine.

Finally, I appreciate the melodies that Black has come up with. Just about any artist could take the score to Speedy Marie or Headache and turn it into a good song, attitude or no. Nirvana was much like this. They could craft a great tune, though it was often overshadowed by the vocals, feedback, and energy.

Easily one of the best albums of the nineties. Frank Black a.k.a. Black Francis a.k.a. Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV was the lead singer and main songwriter behind the seminal Pixies, and when the band broke up in the early nineties, Frank began quietly releasing wonderful albums that display his quirky songwriting mastery. This album, his second, shows off all the great things about Frank's music -- strange, wonderful lyrics, an eclectic musical variety, and an energy unparalleled in pop/rock. This album proves that Frank Black was the mastermind behind the Pixies What a shame that Kim Deal and her overrated Breeders get all the attention while Frank slaves away, making excellent music that nobody ever hears. Some of my favorite songs are "Headache," "Speedy Marie," "Space is Gonna Do Me Good," "Sir Rockaby" and "White Noise Maker."

"Teenager of the Year" by Frank Black is, for lack of a better label, the "Exile on Main Street" of the 90s. But it's more than that. It's simply the decade's best collection of genre-bending, historical analysis within a pop context. It is the pinnacle of Alternative Rock, before Alt-Rock was cool and before it started to suck. There's not a dud on this, and each song challenges listeners in a new way. Few pop rock icons of this day (or any other) could blend this much pop culture, pop songcraft, modern-day philosophy and pure noise together and not either 1) make an ugly-sounding mish mash or 2) come off as pretentious as Emerson Lake and Palmer. It's the least straight-ahead of anything Black has done, solo or with the Pixies, but its his most timeless, most far-reaching and most fun effort. This is one of the Top 5 albums released in the 1990s (perhaps it's the best), and easily in the Top 50 of ALL rock n' roll history. So, to all alt-rock wannabees who still wannabe this late in the game, here's a chance. Sell your Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20 CDs before they aren't worth anything, and shell out whatever you must for "Tennager of the Year." The music world will become much clearer once you do.

The Pixies were about as cool as it's possible for a band to be, and so it was at first difficult to stomach the invention of Frank Black, suddenly sounding like their dad.

For all the good things that can be said about the first (eponymous) solo album, it certainly invited those unfavourable comparisons by sticking too closely to the Pixies formula. Teenager of the Year, on the other hand, sounds happy to be flabby and uncool. He seems to have relaxed, forgotten about the Pixies, and just doing what he wants to do.

Consequently, there is a treacherous MOR quality to the record, and one can't help lamenting what he might have done with the same material had he recorded it five years previously. That said, the songs are some of his most accomplished ever: fun, writerly and irresistibly melodic.

The subject matter is as scattergun and predictable as ever-- UFOs, the joys of music, Pong, sci-fi television-- but it's nice to see the inclusion of a couple of mature yet idiosyncratic love songs. 'Sir Rockaby' will make you cry with a stupid smile on your face.

Seven years after its release, I cannot stop myself from bursting into song along with this record, and that's its real power. It's a sprawling songbook of utterly unique, goofball vignettes, stuffed full of inventiveness and performed with a straight face. Who else could rhyme 'potlach,' 'sasquatch' and 'mismatch' in three successive lines? And who hasn't heard this album without reaching for the dictionary?

All his classic vocal personae are out in force too. He shifts from his Ramones snarl ('Thallassocracy') to his plaintive Neil Young impression ('(I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain') within the first five minutes. It's this constant change in vocal gear that supplies the emotional element missing from the songs themselves.

If there's a problem, it's in length. Judicious editing of the song-list from 22 to somewhere nearer 15 might make it a sharper, more satisfying experience. But then where do you cut? He wrote this album on a creative roll, and everybody I know would argue the toss for different songs. Which, I suppose, only goes to show the quality of the quantity.

Sadly, despite the occasional song to hit the mark, he's never bettered this album. But I know I'll be singing these songs for the rest of my life, and for a tenner, that seems like a real bargain.

In retrospect it's easy to see why an album as compelling and inventive as "Teenager of the Year" bombed commercially- after all it was released in the middle of grungemania and few if any of these songs could be filed under that genre- but with the passing of time this has come to be Frank Black's undisputed masterpiece (and for my money even topping the Pixies).

One of the things I value the most when listening to an album is its capacity to surprise, that puzzling moment in which you grin and wonder if you've heard what you think you did- the little yet brilliant details that keep the listener on its toes wondering what will follow.

And this album is the king of the unexpected musical detours since Black's always shuffling his ingredients, which means that you can find here frenzied charges to match the Pixies' "Something Against You" ("Thalassocracy") resting alongside surf ballads ("Sir Rockaby"),or haunting keyboard odes ("Speedy Marie") shadowing power pop("Headache") and airy space pop ("Space is gonna do me good").

It's simply the most rewarding and enduring record I own, and that's without mentioning how much fun it is to listen to.

Die-hard Pixie fans who disregard post-Pixies Frank Black are really missing out, especially on this album, which I consider to be his very best. With 22 tracks, this album could have been a double album from sheer quantity alone, and when you consider the quality of these tunes as well, you're talking about more substance than a lot of artists show in their entire careers. The music on this album is brilliant, with Black's uniquely unusual chord sequences and counts backed by an air-tight rock band. Add to this lyrics of utter genius, with inverted rhyme schemes such as "To help the flowers in mean space/They're trying to make that place green," and a whole motherload of other tricks, and you've got a timeless and unforgettable listening experience. All styles are covered here, from punk to twisted reggae to straight rock to stuff you just can't classify at all, other than to say, "Frank Black is a freaking genius!" And so he is, and if you want proof, this album is all you need.