757. Frank Black - Teenager of the Year (1994)

Track Listing

1. What Ever Happened To Pong?
2. Thalassocracy
3. (I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain
4. Calistan
5. The Vanishing Spies
6. Speedy Marie
7. Headache
8. Sir Rockaby
9. Freedom Rock
10. Two Reelers
11. Fiddle Riddle
12. Ole Mulholland
13. Fazer Eyes
14. I Could Stay Here Forever
15. The Hostess With The Mostest
16. Superabound
17. Big Red
18. Space Is Gonna Do Me Good
19. White Noise Maker
20. Pure Denizen Of The Citizens Band
21. Bad, Wicked World
22. Pie In The Sky

Review

So Frank Black after the Pixies gives us his solo career. It, unfortunately, never reaches the heights of Surfer Rosa or Doolittle, but hey... what does. Still, this is a pretty nifty album albeit a bit too sprawling for its own good.

Throughout 22 songs and a bit more than an hour of album Black touches many different styles, much like the Pixies had done before, but there is a distinct lack of focus to this production. This is not to say that there aren't great tracks here, because there definitely are.

It is the great tracks peppered throughout the album that really make it a worthy listen. Frank Black manages to keep the timeless sound of the Pixies, an album that could have been recorded today as well as 5 years before it actually was. So it is really good, but you honestly always expect more after the great albums in the past of the Pixies, it is an unfair expectation but something you always have in the back of your head anyway. So I'll put this on par with Bossanova and give it 9.

Track Highlights

1. Speedy Marie
2. Freedom Rock
3. Calistan
4. (I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Notable songs include "Olé Mulholland," about William Mulholland, the architect of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the St. Francis Dam, and "Big Red," about the possibility of terraforming Mars. The song "Bad Wicked Word" is about the 1960's TV Show The Invaders.

Calistan: