Black is Back!

Artist: Black Francis
Album: Bluefinger
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Release Date: September 11, 2007

Earlier this year Frank Black went into the studio to record one new song for a best of retrospective. Possessed by the spirit of Dutch junkie/artist/pianist Herman Brood, he emerged with an entire album, and a name change.

For those of you who have been keeping your fingers crossed waiting for a new Pixies album, this is the record you’ve been waiting for.

Easily his best record in years, Bluefinger bursts through the speakers with all the blissful raw sweaty sex-fuelled abandon that Frank’s been hinting at for much of his entire solo career, but rarely attained with such mastery or consistency. Reclaiming his Pixies alias is totally appropriate. One listen and it’s obvious - this isn’t a Frank Black record, it’s a Black Francis record.

More review, videos and art after the jump.

Throughout, the guitar is crunchy, the bass is fat and raw. Black’s wife, Violet, lends a welcome female voice to the proceedings. Black, reconnected with his inner-teenager, barks, yelps, and howls his way through the eleven caustic tracks. (Ten originals and a cover of Brood’s “You Can’t Break A Heart and Have It”.)

First single, “Threshold Apprehension” is a purely joyous noise. Its’ infectious stuttering guitar, wailing dog in a gutter chorus, and junk sick, lust-charged lyrics evoke the Pixies in all their latter day glory. You can’t help but smile as Black screams “I stood on the dock and you got on your knees / Grand Marnier and a pocket full of speed / We did it all day till we started to bleed”.

The first five songs bristle with punk pathos, and before you know it, they’re over. “Captain Pasty” with its “rocket-fuel” imagery sets the tone quick. In “Lolita”, Black offers the wisdom - presumably to Brood’s daughter Lola - “You get your bone / then you get thrown in the dog pound.”

“Angeles Come To Comfort You” is the one song that, at first, sounds more like mid-era solo Black, but then it almost immediately shifts gears, and becomes a Martian-surf instrumental that wouldn’t have been out of place on Bossonova. The narrator of “Angeles Come To Comfort You” directly addresses the Herman Brood story with a clarity not apparent on the other Blue Finger tracks. Black sings about Brood’s suicide. (He jumped off the roof of the same Amsterdam Hilton where John and Yoko honeymooned and held their first bed-in.) But Black also reminds us that Brood “played piano really fuckin’ good”.

Despite the album’s dark themes, Black sounds like he’s having a genuinely great time. During an instrumental break in “Test Pilot Blues” he spontaneously ad-libs “I love this part”. In “Tight Black Rubber” he proves his humor is intact, by following the line “I’m all killer / no filler” by recanting the words to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.

The fact that this record was written and recorded so quickly is phenomenal. The band sounds like they’ve been playing the songs for years; tactfully maneuvering the records’ dynamics, intros, odd time signatures, break-downs, and tempo-changes with tasteful aplomb. Throughout “Lolita”, the band locks in on this staccato groove that makes it sound almost as if the CD is skipping. Barring the Brood cover, none of the songs here are straight verse chorus verse. Clocking in at thirty-something minutes, it’s a rare record that grabs you on first listen and rewards you on repeated spins.

We will probably never get that Pixies reunion album, but if Black keeps putting out records like this, you won’t hear me complaining.

Frank Black is dead. Long live Black Francis!

Tracklisting:
Captain Pasty
Threshold Apprehension
Test Pilot Blues
Lolita
Tight Black Rubber
Angels Come To Comfort You
Your Mouth Into Mine
Discotheque 36
You Can’t Break a Heart and Have It
She Took All the Money
Blue Finger

Here are some cool fan-made videos for Blue Finger songs:

Captain Pasty