The Frank and Walters  Beauty Becomes More Than Life ::

Tracklisting: Castaway; Don't Stop; Time We Said Goodbye; Today; Until The End; Woman; Let Me Know; Plenty Times; Simple Times; Something Happened To Me; Stop; Take Me Through This Life

It appears that, before embarking on a follow-up to their well received second album The Grand Parade, this Cork trio took a stroll around the record shops and clubs of the land and have grasped the idea of becoming something more than just another name to add to the ever increasing heap of indie bands currently residing in the bargain bin. In doing so The Frank's have come up with a record that splits itself between a mixture of styles through accessible tunes, while baring all the hallmarks of their previous records.

Take the pulsing backbeat of Blondie's Heart of Glass, stir it in with sharp guitars, whirring keyboards garnished with Niall Linehan's plaintive vocals and you've got a highly hummable pop song in the form of Don't Stop. The addition of keyboardist Sarah De Courcy to the ranks not only fills out the bare 3-piece arrangement, it allows another aspect to their songs to shine through as can be found on Today's church organ contrasting with the clubby beat box and rumbling bass lines of 7.30. With more than a hint of U2's Lemon and a shimmering vocal that sounds like it's been hooked up to a strobe light on overdrive, 7.30 shows an eagerness to flirt with dance music and leave the standard indie-guitar band sound behind. However, the latter rears it's head on Woman, appearing laboured in trying to fit a slow song into a fast pace while rasping-guitars flex muscles on pretty standard riffs, begging the question as to how far a band can take such a sound.

The album's opening track Plenty Times is a typical upbeat Frank & Walters song with bare guitar-band arrangements giving way to Linehan's voice stretching to reach the high notes of a trademark swooping chorus, sounding like Johnathan Richman if he'd had his adenoids cleared out.

If ever there was a friendly sounding tune, it's Something Happened To Me which splashes about a chirpy wah-wah guitar intro before inviting us to a summery hookline that wouldn't sound out of place on any car stereo. The old music hall piano of Castaway carries us to a tea dance waltz at the over 50's club and has 'em all swaying in the aisles to a killer singalong refrain which is by no means breaking musical frontiers but is damn memorable. Like most fatal diseases, this album is a real grower displaying that The Frank & Walters' craft and appeal is in creating melodic tunes that still need the corners smoothed out but find welcome ears in a live setting. The moody epic closing track Until The End sums it all up: "when it's not perfect/it will be worth it in the end".

CK

WOW!
1999-05-31

		The Frank and Walters  Glass ::

Tracklisting: Underground; Isn't it Time; New York; 6 Becomes 9; Sinking; Talk About You; Paradise; Ancestors; Forgiveness; Facing Silence; I Will Be King; Looking For America

Noel Gallagher (he of Oasis songwriting and annoying little brother fame) recently said that if it wasn't for The Frank And Walters, he'd probably be still working on a building site. Chart topping girlies All Saints also bestowed their complements on the Cork trio when they expressed a serious interest in recording a version of 'Paradise' which appears on this album. Support acts on past Frank And Walters tours read like a current who's who of music with Suede and Radiohead figuring amongst those fresh faced hopefuls from the early '90's. Can you see a pattern forming here? On the face of it, this trio appear as the nearly men of indie pop, but a couple of spins of their latest offering quickly shows the one thing which is both their strongest and also their weakest point. It is their ability to create highly infectious choruses that most pop acts would kill for (hence the Appleton sisters' interest) while producing mundane verses that seem to act as mere fillers between refrains on many of their tunes. There are of course exceptions to this rule, namely the plaintive ballad 'New York' which boasts a backdrop from an eerie operatic female voice and 'Sinking' which could stand up without any complicated accompaniment, electronic or otherwise. But, it is their adherence to their formula that has led this trio to try different instrumentation as a possible method of breathing fresh air into their music. Just as last year's 'Beauty Becomes More Than Life' album saw the Franks move away from the searing guitar sound while meddling with keyboards, this follow up finds them totally immersing themselves in the synth pop sound. As dance beats thump and sequencers whirr along 'Underground' and 'Facing Silence', Niall Linehan delivers his unremarkable verses before letting rip with totally uplifting choruses. Some of these tracks sound like a strange, electronic step back in time with the intro to Thin Lizzy's 'Waitin' For an Alibi' cropping up on the synth bass line of 'Talking About You', while the chiming sing-along melody of 'Forgiveness' calls to mind Scandinavian popsters Aha. Here you'll find nothing other than pure pop songs, which are what this band have always made. Some highly hummable — some barely memorable.

CK

WOW!
2000-10-13