Black Letter DaysArtist: Frank Black and the CatholicsGenre: Rock Publisher: spinArt Released: 8/20/02 |
A Review by Abe Scott
01/14/2003
After inverting his name from Black Francis to the warmer, folkier Frank Black, the man who was Charles Thompson has produced some of the most consistently under-appreciated rock and roll of the past ten years. His first two solo LPs are fairly well-regarded, but the bulk of the material Frank recorded with his backing band The Catholics has been written off as the work of a once-vital old man who didn't know when to give up. This is impossibly frustrating, as I believe Frank Black & The Catholics are currently the greatest rock and roll band in the world. On Black Letter Days, Frank Black has recorded what is possibly the greatest album of his career.
Black Letter Days opens with an inspired cover of Tom Waits' "The Black Rider." Frank & The Catholics completely reinvent the track, transforming Waits' lazy, surrealistic invitation to a psychotic call to arms. Frank screams and shrieks like a demented carnival barker over a breakneck bassline and thundering honky-tonk piano. It's the perfect opening to an epic album, and more than enough evidence to shut up those naysayers who will complain Frank doesn't "flip out" like he used to.
The fact that there are actually people bemoaning Frank Black's current vocal approach just proves how narrow-minded rock fans can be. It's incredible how many people who claim to love The Pixies probably have no idea why they were truly great. I believe that so called "Pixies fans" are mostly people who feel almost obligated to love the Pixies. After all, Nirvana, Radiohead and the like all bow down at the altar of their loud-soft dynamics, fusion of poppy hooks and shrieking noise and whatever other All Music Guide cliché you want to slap on their sound. Yes, this is all well and good, but what made The Pixies a truly great band wasn't the fact that a generation of artists made millions ripping their sound off, or that they made catchy, noisy music. No, the Pixies were a great band because they were able to sing about subjects seemingly trivial, bizarre or downright nonsensical and make them emotional and powerful. There's no logical reason why a song about the Roswell incident should be able to nearly move one to tears, but for some reason, the Pixies could pull it off. Their greatness wasn't in their volume or influence—they were great because every one of their songs did everything it could to make you feel. Whether they were trying to creep you out, excite you, make you laugh or make you cry, The Pixies' directness never strayed. That's something that cannot be said for their contemporaries, such as the pretense one had to wade through to get to the feelings at the core of Sonic Youth songs, or the bored aloofness of the Jesus and Mary Chain. The Pixies were all heart.
(Not to get off on a rant, but it's infuriating that Radiohead get regarded as visionaries for making machines and aliens into sympathetic creatures in rock and roll songs. The Pixies did it first, and they did it with a sense of humor. Hell, look at "Subterranean Homesick Alien"—a song that very seriously addresses the topic of alien abduction—something Frank practically invented on songs such as "The Happening," "Motorway To Roswell," "Men In Black," "The Vanishing Spies," et al.)
While the Pixies were great, Frank Black is even greater. Whereas Black Francis excelled at injecting obtuse and surreal subject matter with passion and emotion, Frank Black currently sings of very real with honesty and insight. Black Letter Days is very much the realization of Frank's increasing humanism—where his first solo efforts dealt with ancient facial hair traditions, drinking soda, sci-fi conventions and video games, the songs on Black Letter Days eschew this sort of special-interest songwriting in favor of speaking about very real issues.
The album's title track is a first-person account of dealing with the soul-crushing tedium working when one is dealing with painful heartache. “End of Miles” tells the story of a man who moved out west in a desperate attempt to better his life. “The Southbound Bevy” is a story told by a man who lost all ambition, and can only drink his dreams away. The album's best track, “I Will Run After You” is a desperate, yet determined statement of love from a man unable to accept that the one he loved has left him. After explaining his situation, the narrator can do nothing but repeatedly sing “I will run after you” in a beautiful, heartbreaking falsetto, as the music surges and grows stronger and more determined. “I Will Run After You” hits hard and taps into that unexplainable part of the human soul which only the best music can speak to. This stuff is real.
Frank Black's brilliant songwriting is only made more powerful by his incredible backing band, The Catholics. The emotional resonance of Black Letter Days owes a lot to his band's incredible musical ability, and understanding of when and when not to play. Dave McCaffery and Scott Boutier bring the same solid rhythmic sensibilities to bass and drums that they did for '80s jangle-popsters Miracle Legion. Former Human Sexual Response/Zulus guitarist Rich Gilbert proves himself to be one of the most incredible musicians in rock and roll today, effortlessly gracing the album with sublime pedal steel and blistering lead guitar. Former Beefheart/Snakefinger sideman Eric Drew Feldman's piano and keyboards add remarkable texture and depth, as irreplaceable to the proceedings as Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart were to Exile on Main Street. And as great as the Pixies singular sound was, The Catholics are a far more talented and more versatile band than The Pixies could have ever hoped to be.
There's so much to love about Black Letter Days. In addition to the heartwrenching tales of loss, there are a few moments of absolute joy. "Jane, The Queen Of Love" is celebratory declaration of an all-consuming devotion to a woman who "makes bumblebee love." The two covers of "The Black Rider" that bookend the album (the previously mentioned psychotic version and a cool surf-rock take) are both jubilant celebrations of the bizarre, and the completely baffling. "Whispering Weeds" is a sort of Naked-era Talking Heads-sounding song that proves Frank is still in touch with his surreal side.
Black Letter Days is a record that's far too good to be ignored. It's extremely upsetting to see total suckers like Ryan Adams lazily tossing off boring, non-challenging tripe that hardly passes as "Americana" receive undying praise because he has a "cool" haircut when a man like Frank Black is putting out such consistently exciting, sincere music to such an underwhelming response. Black Letter Days is a truly special work, and should be treated as such.
Don't let the best record of the year go overlooked.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 01/14/2003
