Frank Black: Black Letter Days : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Frank black proves how far a formerly formidable artist will go to avoid playing the major-label game. After his experimental-pop solo CDs sold considerably less than his Pixies past, he's been aiming lower, cranking out straightforward, live-in-the-studio sets with various configurations of the Catholics. Bereft of mainstream ambitions, they can't be considered commercial flops, and their flagrant cheapness makes minor profits (and minimal airplay) nearly inevitable.
Recorded in rapid succession between last October and March, with only a month's break between sessions, Black Letter Days and Devil's Workshop test even downsized fan expectations. These simultaneously released, separately sold albums attest not only to Black's productivity but also to his tendency to soft-sell his tunes via simplistic arrangements and demo-like recording quality. Marginally older, considerably longer and with stronger tunes, Black Letter Days evokes an early-Seventies Stones bootleg -- a little bit country, a little bit rock & roll - minus the danger. Its eighteen cuts blend together in an undifferentiated mass because the sonics rarely change. Devil's Workshop is punky but sloppy, as if the band were denied rehearsal time before the tape started rolling. Like Prince, Black would benefit from putting more effort into fewer songs. Restraint isn't necessarily a restriction.

BARRY WALTERS
(RS 903 - August 22, 2002)