Black Francis

Bluefinger

(Cooking Vinyl)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

With Bluefinger, Charles Thompson ditches his usual "Frank Black" solo moniker for the name that defined his years serving as the frontman for the Pixies: Black Francis. Also making a return are some of the seething intensity and willful eccentricities that helped sail the ship of alternative rock. When he blows his top halfway through "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It" and yelps the chorus in his inimitable manner, it's a powerful reminder that Black hasn't lost it and he's never left.

But he did wander a bit, spending his last few albums obsessing in Nashville studios with storied session pros from country and rock. On Bluefinger, he's rowdier, sexed-up and again backed by his loyal Catholics—if it's vintage Black Francis at the mic, then it's latter-day Frank Black behind him. While a few Nashville echoes can still be heard in prominent harmonicas and slow-burning guitars, the album's best moments tend to center around jittery, balls-out rock (like the fabulous "Threshold Apprehension") or the familiarly cracked story-songs that Black writes so well. If the Pixies reunion never does produce a proper album of new material, Bluefinger would be a salutary consolation prize.