Frank Black "Teenager of the Year" (1994)
Black Francis broke up the Pixies (announcing it in an interview before
informing his bandmates) then changed his name to Frank Black and headed
right back into the studio to record his first solo album. That album
didn't make it to the 1001 albums but this, his second album did.
It's a sprawling beast of a thing, with 22 tracks and a runtime of well
over an hour. Styles as varied as punk, reggae, rockabilly and
Beatles-esque pop vie for space. "Olé Mulholland"
has a definite Lou Reed swagger to it, while album-closer "Pie in the
Sky" has a kind of shouty rock that wouldn't be out of place on a Foo
Fighters album. "Headache" has shades of Beatles.
Black has a keen instinct for melody and interesting melodic ideas, one
of those songwriters whose melodies take unexpected (but not unwelcome)
little twists and turns, like in "Fazer Eyes"
There was nothing on here I particularly disliked, and I actually find
Black's lyrics more interesting than most, but it's unlikely that I'd
sit down and listen to this in its entirety again which I did 3-4 times to get the measure of it.
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