Frankie Rose‘s third album, Herein Wild, continues the steady improvement she showed on 2012’s Interstellar. She sets herself apart from other dream-pop artists with perfectly executed orchestrations and vocals. What makes her different than most others is that she writes so specifically for her voice that I couldn’t imagine anyone else singing these songs. It’d be like anyone else singing Camera Obscura songs besides Tracyanne Campbell-it just doesn’t work.
That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have moments where Rose borrows from some of her influences. If you listen to the album you’ll hear some flashes of The Cure, Human League, and Mazzy Starr. She peppers little pieces in here and there to give the album at least a little familiarity. It’s helpful, but not necessary. One listen to radio-friendly 80’s dance beat on “Question/Reason” and I could see Herein Wild being a universally loved smash hit.
The dream-pop can sometimes quickly turn to a rock and roll nightmare, like the heavy-hitting “Heaven.” It happens a couple times during the album, and they’re welcome surprises. There are long periods on Herein Wild where things are getting more and more inward, and all of a sudden there’s an explosion of guitars and drums that’ll take your breath away. She takes it from progressive rock to a mix of ethereal electronica and The Go-Go’s on “Street Of Dreams,” which makes for a pretty wild combination.
My favorite song from the album is “Requiem,” the final song. At only a little over two minutes, it’s the shortest song on Herein Wild. I think it also has the most going on during that run time. It opens with an acoustic guitar and Rose’s voice, sounding like she’s down in a deep well or at the back of a cave. At the end of the first verse she adds in some trumpet-after the second, strings. The song gets so involved it would be easy to overlook the lyrics if they weren’t so spectacular. She opens with “When I am old I’ll be alone again and so, listening to my own voice by the sea. I’ll be ok I’ve killed those demons anyway, and so far away.” The the chorus, “I’m afraid Hell and Heaven are the same, it’s the usual sorry song. It’s the way, and there’s nothing more to say. In the end things fall apart. Herein wild.”
I definiitely recommend checking out Herein Wild, but I’d also say that you should check out Interstellar. You can see Frankie Rose on tour with Franz Ferdinand from October 8-24th in the States and Canada. Then she heads over to Europe for a string of dates in December that mostly stay in the UK. For more info check out her website.