Frank Black And The Catholics: Frank Black And The Catholics

Losing his label deal must have kicked Frank Black's ass a little bit. He sounds fierce on his new album, and that's a welcome change. With the Pixies, no one wrote short, sharp pop better than Black (a.k.a. Black Francis), a skill that carried over to the best moments of his solo career. Most of those could be found on his self-titled 1993 debut, but, as the striking album-opener "All My Ghosts" suggests, there's more than a few of them here, as well. Black's voice sounds rougher than before, but it suits both the material and the no-frills self-production. Perhaps the most surprising thing lyrically about FBATC is Black's newfound emotional straightforwardness. As the titles indicate, "Suffering," "I Need Peace," and "Do You Feel Bad About It" offer more direct statements than found in most of Black's music. That's not to suggest that he's gotten rid of the esoterica; it wouldn't be a proper Black album without a song like "Back To Rome," with lines like, "I'm so sorry that it didn't work out / and I'm sorry about the Visigoths." Musically, it steps back from the experimentation of Black's other solo albums, but it's loud, it rocks, and it should sound great to fans who have been waiting for years for Black to break out a bit.