Album Review: Frankie Rose, Herein Wild

Somethingyousaid.com’s Carol Bowditch checks out the second solo longplayer from Frankie Rose:

I remember watching an interview a while back where Brooklyn babes Vivian Girls said that, “they didn’t scream, they sung like angels… like baby angels learning to sing for the first time.” They were, in all of their sunkissed, tattooed beauty, completely angelic and I soon became infatuated with their revival indie sound and lovely shiny hair. Frankie Rose, an alumni of the glossy Vivian Girls, and original member of equally likeable Brooklyn outfits, the Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts, has since broken away from these alt-angels to make music as a solo artist.

Her sophomore record, Herein Wild, is a lo-fi, jangly affair. Rose pumps out danceable melodies in tracks that are dense with fuzzy guitars, with her sweet vocals topping off the sounds. It’s really pretty stuff. Frankie’s throwback vocals cover Echo & the Bunnymen-like sounds in Sorrow, and there are many other musical familiarities throughout the record that sound as if they were plucked from a grungy coming-of-age soundtrack. The Depths, a bass-heavy number midway through the record, is a personal  favourite. That 80’s revival sound has been polished up for modern listeners and is executed well, nicely produced but still has a brooding integrity of that Bauhaus era. Nearing the end of the record, Heaven reaffirms Rose’s angelic status, the layered harmonies in this song are placed between big bass solo’s and pummelling barre chords, it’s like being run over by a cupid driving a Range Rover.

Frankie’s previous experience with bands of the Brooklyn revival genre has been taken in her stride and the resulting solo record is personal and welcomingly light. Herein Wild is pays homage to the sound that it is aiming to emulate and is a really enjoyable listen all the way through, thanks to Frankie’s soft vocals and the shimmering, dense accompaniment.

Words by Carol Bowditch.