I was sort of mislead regarding the new Frankie Rose album, HILA. A review stated that there were more hooks than is typical for Rose on this long player. That’s not the case, with one major exception — the second track on the record, “Can’t Be Wrong.”
Most of the album is abstract and filled with dark undertones. This is definitely the same Frankie Rose who lovingly covered The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds. As critic Fred Thomas writes, there are nods to the “doomy baselines of early Cure material.” There’s an eerie atmosphere that hangs over the whole affair. “Can’t Be Wrong” stands out, though, for its accessibility.
The gorgeous “Can’t Be Wrong” layers synth melodies over a steady pulse, with thick, strutting bass and Rose’s vaporous vocals recalling both the earliest Nite Jewel recordings and the mysterious essence of the Cocteau Twins.
Nite Jewel and Cocteau Twins are both references that cause me to sit up and listen.
Writer Alan Jacobs recently lamented the hyper-referential style that describes every piece of culture by comparing it to other pieces of culture, but that seems to be the lingua franca of music reviews. While Jacobs thinks it isn’t helpful, I would disagree. Everything we hear is has a relationship to other things we’ve heard. If that serves to help us frame the work, pique our interest and pull us in, then the review has served its purpose.
Frankie Rose - Can’t Be Wrong (Bandcamp)
