With each record released under her name, Frankie Rose moves farther away from the fuzzy pop of Vivian Girls. And while Rose created memorable tunes in that group, as well as in Beverly and Dum Dum Girls among other acts, it's her last few solo albums which seem most appealing to this reviewer.
The new Frankie Rose offering, HILA, continues Frankie's synth-pop explorations. It is, like a few earlier long-players, full of sleek and supple New Wave-inspired indie. First single from this one, "Cant Be Wrong" still charms enormously in the context of the rest of the tunes. That one sits nicely next to the peppy "Return to Dust", a reminder that this sort of music doesn't necessarily need to be too dour. Elsewhere, the shimmering "Shadow Twin" sounds a little like Lush. Speaking of which, one of that band's drummers holds down the rhythms on this record, and Justin Welch (Elastica, Me Me Me, etc.) really brings a nice vibe to the tunes here.
Of course, any Frankie Rose record succeeds on how well Rose's wonderful voice is integrated into the sounds and in that sense, HILA is a success. The material here has a sheen like a late Eighties Depeche Mode album, but Frankie's voice tethers this to dream pop at times. "Rainman" sounds a lot like those instrumentals on The Moon and the Melodies which Richard Thomas of Dif Juz played on (thanks to sax from Jeff Tobias [Sunwatchers, Modern Nature, etc.] and Matthew Friedlander), even as "Velvet Refrain" sounds a whole lot like underrated 4AD legends, Swallow. Still, for all that is familiar here, Frankie Rose remains remarkably agile in how things are stitched together. She makes cohesive albums which undoubtedly owe debts to the best bands in our record collections, and something like HILA is thus so easy to love even on first listen. Highly recommended.
HILA by Frankie Rose is out on Born Losers Records this week. Details below.
[Photo: Adam Barabas]