Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Of course it's "NOT THE PIXIES"!!, May 1, 2002
The key to Frank Black's best work? Where most rock harps away on a narrowly conceived, trendily downbeat version of "reality", our former lead Pixie realizes that it's a path covered with way too many shoeprints. These songs are rhapsodies for undiscovered worlds, states of mind, and stretches of space that he imagines are out there SOMEWHERE; an alternate universe full of untouched treasure that just HAS to be as bright and peachy as this album's cover, in contrast to the stark grey boredom of everyday "reality". Frank replaces the axiom "write what you know" with "write what you DREAM", and this is what puts his songs' starting points several yards ahead (and to the left) of the average songwriter.He aches to ditch the real L.A. for some cosmic doppelganger that's only hinted at it black-and-white flicks, feels tied down by the laws of the earth's gravity, and cranks up the Ramones over the whiny logic of mere ordinary realists. This disc may not grab you at first, especially if you've foisted "Doolittle" and "Bossanova" upon passersby and neighbors as much as I have, but it will... And I haven't even gotten to the multi-layered guitar crunch, or the perfect wisdom of his "Hang Onto Your Ego", one of the best cover songs in ANY universe, alternate or otherwise.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The King is Dead, Long Live the King, March 22, 2003
This is where Frank Black physically threw all the Pixies fans off the bandwagon, and he's never looked back. I've looked back, though, and I can say that it is amazing how consistent Frank Black's solo career has been. Now almost a decade into it, he has courageously and stubbornly followed his own course, completely unconcerned with passing trends and q-factors. Frank Black, the album, sets the blueprint for everything that follows. Cryptic lyrics, usually based around some interesting notion from Mr. Black's apparently voracious need to read, constructed overtop a near-groundbreaking sonic collision between British glam, American punk, and the old twisted roots of rock'n'roll. It's a tougher trick than anyone gives him credit for.Frank Black is more a disconnected group of songs than his succeeding albums. "Los Angeles", a thrashy rocker that changes gears halfway through and turns into near-majestic melancholy, isn't about the city in California. "I Heard Ramona Sing" is a veiled tribute to the Ramones. "Czar" is about John Denver's need for a personal stash of gas during the US oil crisis. He'd get more slyly conceptual on later albums ( Teenager of the Year and The Cult of Ray had their sci-fi motifs, while Frank Black and the Catholics seems to be based on Gerald Messadie's The History of the Devil), but the randomness of this venture seems completely appropriate as a first step in a very interesting, bravely iconoclastic career.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Visionary + Great Music=Art, April 19, 2000
Because of the array of guitars and synthesizers, Frank's debut album is probably the one album that best expresses his deep imagination and beliefs. At first listen, you may think these songs are meaningless, but it's Black's quirky style that makes you think. Did you know that when Frank talks about moving to Los Angeles, that he is actually talking about a Los Angeles on another planet? Or how about the hard rocking "Czar", which is actually about John Denver's pursuit to fly in space rather than a ballad about a Russian leader? "Places Named After Numbers" and "Every Time I Go Around Here" are emotional stories dealing with spacious dreams & remembrance of great utopias. "Two Spaces" and "Old Black Dawning" are great dream references to places that don't exist, much dismay to Frank. Essentialy, Black dreams through most of these songs, reflecting emotion and fantasy glee over places and things that may not exist..or that we have not found yet. His visions are best expressed here, every song is great. After you listen to this, get "Teenager Of The Year", his second best album.
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