“Dolby’s Rupees: Frank Black and the Catholics – Black Letter Days.”

There’s this poignant bit in Gigantic: The Story of Frank Black & the Pixies that details how the Pixies broke up in the early ’90s, effectively ending the band’s stint with Kim Deal, bass player and lead singer of The Breeders, as a member. Pixies singer Black Francis (also known as Frank Black, Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV and God knows what else) tells Deal that the Pixies are going on a sabbatical. Deal asks how long the break from action will last and Francis replies, “I believe a sabbatical is one year,” and then walks away, never to speak to her again.

The book then furnishes an interview with Deal where she’s venting frustration something along the lines of how big of an a**hole Francis was for offering that snide, sarcastic reply to her question, and then just leaving things to lie, like that. It’s interesting to note, then, that Deal would go on to lead The Breeders to astronomic MTV and radio success with “Cannonball”; while brandishing a copious amount of catchy songs to surround it as well, while Francis would essentially remain a nobody, at least for a while, to anyone outside of the Pixies’ initial cult following of the ’80s. It took an inclusion of Doolittle (1989) on a Rolling Stone top 100 albums readers’ poll in 2002 to propel Francis and the late-’80s indie poppers into any kind of ubiquitous popularity among anybody under 35. 

Black Letter Days, without question, is Black Francis’ gut check, an album that also happened to come out in 2002. It encompasses a mature, emotionally robust coming of age in his songwriting, the kind of thing that’s easily relatable to a real-life heartbreak, such as the divorce Francis had undergone just recently. 

In fact, Show Me Your Tears is essentially billed as the Catholics’ “divorce album,” sort of like Shellac’s 1000 Hurts, a similarly malady-titled project. Listening to half of the first song on Show Me Your Tears imbues a feeling of extreme unrest and overwhelming angst, as if it’s legitimately possible that Francis is going to do something awful to either himself or his former lover.

Perhaps cathartically, Black Letter Days, Frank Black and the Catholics co-penultimate album (released on the same day as the meandering, pointless Devil’s Workshop), opens with a little bit of eccentricity in subject matter. “The Black Rider” comes in as a cover of the Tom Waits tune [1] and probably earmarks a healthy excursion into fantasy and drama for Francis. The song owns to the mantra of “Come on along with the black rider / We’ll have a gay ol’ time”, this last line repeated ad absurdam toward the end of the song like a tickling mockery of his own current divorced situation in life, the “gay” perhaps, not surely, but perhaps, poking fun at his present lack of a female companion. 

“California Bound” follows, the most heavily streamed tune on Black Letter Days, with pert, optimistic pop focus, and the results are catchy and becoming. By and large, Black Letter Days is full of heartbreak, but it’s the way Francis juxtaposes these mourning dirges with a sense of exploration, discovery and renewal, both in the lyrics and also in the music itself, that catapults Black Letter Days into classic status and locks it in as easily the best thing Francis ever did outside of the Pixies, and in any band since maybe Bossanova (1990). 

All over the album, gorgeous, delicate steel guitar runs infuse the mix with a galvinizing, lonesome twang, coming to piercing fruition on the mid-album showstopper “Valentine and Garuda.” The song is a rich, multifaceted masterpiece which takes the complex shape of acknowledging the unflagging heartbreak (“I had a love / And she called me ‘Valentine’”); (“Oh pity me Garuda”) and also fomenting a distinct and hard-won resolution. This resolution comes in the form of the poetic and memorable mission statement of life that is “My eyes are small and dark / My pigeon heart / Is pumping blood so fast / I fly above the earth / For what it’s worth / I search for love lost in the past”. So much seems woven implicitly into these lines, which is what I like about them: it’s apparent from the rhetoric here and Francis has found true, vivid meaning and purpose in his everyday life, and the fact of it being interesting is obviated by his flying heart rate. It’s like an epiphany he has about his own identity manifest beautifully in the physiological toward commanding the emotional and sociological.

Black Letter Days is a pop album and it works for that very reason. Let’s be crystal clear on this. The Pixies, for that matter, were more or less always a pretty poppy entity, save for a few caustic fringe earmarks like a maniacal set of vocals here and there or the twisted rodeo-rocker “Vamos” that has to be heard to be understood. That is, at least in my opinion, the best song they ever did was “Here Comes Your Man,” which probably could have been an entry on Top of the Pops given better marketing and celebrity hawking on the part of the label. 

In this same vein, Black Letter Days is packed to the tape with catchiness and concise songs that turn on a dime and will break your heart with their expedited roundness. The geographical is worshipped and exalted on “California Bound” and also on “End of Miles,” another ode to Francis’ present home of the West Coast [2]. Perhaps most importantly, it’s an album that features a title track that’s both good musically and also central to the album’s overall message, which simply regards the challenge of facing each ensuing day in these times keeping your head up. Toward the end of the song “Black Letter Days” Francis offers a fictitious account of meeting a stranger and asking “Excuse me sir / Do you have the time? / And can you tell me what’s the matter anyway?” It must be this conscious immersion within an overall human malaise that made Francis’ own personal problems in his mind seem smaller, and drove him to upgrade the tapestry of life into something comparatively broad and digestible, which, you might say, great artists intrinsically do. 

.

[1] Actually there seems to have been a running joke between Francis and the West Coast honky-tonk-barker Tom Waits of stealing each other’s material, as Tom Waits named one of his albums “Bone Machine” after the Pixies tune of the same name. 

.

[2] He’s originally a “Mass-hole,” as I think will be corroborated by the above detailed exchange with Deal. 

338 thoughts on ““Dolby’s Rupees: Frank Black and the Catholics – <em>Black Letter Days</em>.””

  7. Howdy! This article could not be written much better! Going through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He always kept preaching about this. I most certainly will forward this post to him. Fairly certain he’ll have a great read. Thank you for sharing!

  8. Howdy! This post couldnít be written much better! Going through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept talking about this. I’ll forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a great read. Thank you for sharing!

  10. Hello, I do believe your website could be having web browser compatibility issues. When I take a look at your website in Safari, it looks fine however when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to give you a quick heads up! Aside from that, wonderful site!

  12. Having read this I believed it was really informative. I appreciate you taking the time and energy to put this content together. I once again find myself spending a lot of time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!

  13. I absolutely love your blog.. Great colors & theme. Did you develop this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as Iím attempting to create my own personal site and want to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is called. Kudos!

  14. Hello! I could have sworn Iíve visited this site before but after looking at a few of the articles I realized itís new to me. Regardless, Iím definitely delighted I found it and Iíll be book-marking it and checking back often!

  15. An interesting discussion is worth comment. I believe that you need to publish more on this issue, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people don’t talk about these subjects. To the next! Best wishes!!

  17. Hi, I do believe this is a great blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to come back once again since i have book marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide others.

  18. You are so cool! I don’t believe I’ve truly read through something like that before. So great to find somebody with genuine thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This web site is something that’s needed on the internet, someone with a bit of originality!

  192. Бій Усик – Джошуа 25 вересня 2021 року на стадіоні “Тоттенхем” в Лондоні пройде супербій між українцем Олександром Усиком і чемпіоном світу з Великобританії Ентоні Джошуа. Александр Усик Энтони Джошуа смотреть онлайн Гонорари за бій Джошуа – Усик. Видання SportingFree пише, що Джошуа за бій гарантовано отримає $10 млн. Дохід Усика складе щонайменше $3 млн, а за успішних продажів PPV (Pay-per-view – у перекладі з англ

  193. Український важковаговик Олександр Усик (18-0-0, 13 ko) зустрінеться в чемпіонському поєдинку за титули wbo, ibo, ibf із британцем Ентоні Джошуа (24-1-0, 22 КО).Поєдинок заплановано на 25 вересня на стадіоні Тоттенгем Готспур Арена в Усик Джошуа смотреть онлайн Sky Sports Олександър Усик и Антъни Джошуа преминаха официалния кантар преди сблъсъка им в събота вечер на стадиона на Тотнъм в Лондон. Световният шампион на wba, wbo, ibf и ibo тежи точно 108.8 кг, а

  333. My brother recommended I might like this web site. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

  335. Hey there are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you require any coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!

  336. Hello there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.

  337. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post, Ill try to get the hang of it!

  338. The next event I take a look at a weblog, I’m hoping that it doesnt disappoint me round brussels. After all, It became my preference to examine, but I simply notion youd have some detail charming to specific. All I pay attention is clearly some of whining approximately something that you can repair when you werent too busy searching out attention.

Leave a Comment

© 2024 Dolby Disaster • Powered by