Black Francis - 'Bluefinger'
(Cooking Vinyl, 2007)
Rating: 8

Pixies fans unite! Your erstwhile fearless leader, Black Francis, aka Frank Black, aka Charles Thompson, is back with a proverbial vengeance on his latest sonic foray, Bluefinger. On his latest solo release, Thompson has once again adapted the nom de plume associated with his Pixies catalogue and made like it's 199something all over again in displaying an affinity for quiet-loud dynamics via percussive rhythms and blistering guitar lines. Along for the ride with Black Francis is deceased Dutch artist and musician Herman Brood, whose spirit has seemingly been conjured while informing the flow of this album. Whatever or whoever the impetus for Bluefinger may be, the results are inarguable, as Black Francis appears as vibrant and relevant as ever.
In the years since the dissolution of Pixies, Thompson has cut a swathe through the world of postalternative music with recent nods towards Nashville. His idiosyncrasies have garnered him much admiration and respect among critics and a fervent fanbase alike, yet the twists and turns he has provided his listeners have prevented the kind of subcultural world domination he once fleetingly held as the progenitor of a sound that not only propelled his former band but set the template for an entire movement. Led by the spirit of Brood, Black Francis once again sounds ready for a return to the sonic stomping grounds that endeared him to a generation both of listeners and performers. He once counted the likes of Kurt Cobain among his devotees, and Bluefinger reestablishes his mastery of the form that helped galvanize the movement proffered by bands like Nirvana. The album is a return to form, yet Francis deftly avoids anything in the way of rote nostalgia.

The revitalization is readily apparent in the opening two-shot of Captain Pasty and Threshold Apprehension. The linear guitar playing and open-lunged pronouncements that marked Francis' early work are back in full force, along with the pop sensibility that has always given those choruses enough meat to merit repeated listening. His voice has always had a shrill quality to it, yet there has always been something mesmerizing in the way he allows his notes to flutter and shift in pitch and tone. He's an unlikely crooner, but his voice is utterly captivating and has the quality whereby he draws you in even in his most nonsensical moments. Bluefinger actually finds Francis fairly focused lyrically, as he speaks of seeing "blue you've never seen" in the jangly jazz number Test Pilot Blues. The conceit works both as an allusion to the titular test pilot, Francis himself, and Brood's muse. Francis hits an emotive high note on the album with Angels Come to Comfort You, as he seemingly serenades the disembodied Brood, whose drug-fueled existence drew to a close with a presumed suicidal leap from the Amsterdam Hilton that once housed John Lennon and Yoko Ono. To hear Francis say that angels will "break your fall" is to witness a maturity missing from the majority of the Pixies canon. The track concludes with a haunting coda that gives way to an eerily juxtaposed siren that lends the track a nuance befitting the song's solemn resolve.  The transition from the freewheeling fare to the more contemplative material is handled in a seamless manner by Francis and his cohorts, including his new bride and chief harmonizer Violet Clarke (whose presence will undoubtedly conjure memories of Kim Deal). In choosing a muse who so demonstrably latched onto the most primitive notions of sex, drugs, and rock and roll in Brood, Francis seems to have found something or someone worth getting excited about again, as Bluefinger finds him at his most fearless and fearsome. Black Francis established his considerable reputation long ago, but Bluefinger provides further evidence that the influential artist can perhaps step in and out of his own seminal shadow without missing a beat. 

- Brant Miles