Seven fngrs but no soul

Anyone alive in the ’90s knows of Frank Black, and if that name doesn’t ring a bell, certainly the Pixies , the band he fronted, should. If that doesn’t ring a bell – the Pixies redefined rock in the last decade, which means Black has a lot to live up to.

Frank Black wrote, recorded and mixed Svn Fngrs in six days, but unlike the story of creation in the Bible, the album is a little rougher around the edges than anything God ever created. Released by Cooking Vinyl, Frank Black takes up his old Black Francis moniker used in the good old days of the Pixies, as a shift from the sedated rock of his earlier work. To his credit, Svn Fngrs is an impressive attempt at surfer rock in the same vein as the Pixies’ Doolittle. When it peaks, it soars; but mostly the album falls flat.

Svn Fngrs begins with “The Seus,” an energetic offbeat opening track that doesn’t really have much direction but gets somewhere nonetheless. The album then goes into “Garbage Heap,” which is the song most reminiscent of the Pixies on the entire album, but is somewhat repetitive.

The theme of the album doesn’t materialize until the title track “Seven Fingers” where Black sings from the point of view of Cúchulainn, a mythological Irish hero. He is said to have seven fingers and seven toes and can transform into a frenzied beast that will attack just about anything. Black takes a darkly optimistic tone in this and “When They Come to Murder Me” when he once again sings as though he is the Irish hero. In both tracks, he appears to be serenading someone with decidedly un-serenading lyrics like “I had to kill him / I had to turn him inside out.”

Relying on ancient folklore as a theme is something only the Decemberists have pulled off with The Tain, and Frank Black just doesn’t seem to be there yet. Or maybe six days just isn’t long enough to do an epic justice.