Before infiltrating Frankie Rose's third album, everything was looking up.
Pre-release singles "Sorrow" and "Street of Dreams" gave
listeners an insight in to what Herein Wild would sound like. A more refined
album with deeper connotations of ambience and atmosphere, rather than the
stark electronic percussion and new wave sounds of her sophomore Interstellar.
Rose went about attempting to create something innovative, something pop
related for the electronic world. Interstellar was that album - but it
puts Rose in a predicament. To move forward and expand on her sound, Rose
needed something more, Herein Wild is an attempt, but it's not the full
package.
Interstellar was packed full of these indie pop/synth pop gems. Rose
would delicately sing, with mass reverb and delay to give her sound a dream pop
aesthetic, even with the electronic percussion and guitar riffs suited to M83 /
Neon Indian. It was like a 2012 Cocteau Twins, with a novelty sound. Breaking
out of the mould can be difficult for artists, though not for artists as
experienced as Rose. She's a journeymen musician and has worked with New York
bands Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, and Vivian Girls. Rose knows her way
around a record, and with Interstellar, she completely went all out
creative wise. Questions were raised even during Interstellar's release about
how Rose can improve and continue recording this way. Herein Wild starts
well, taking the pre-release singles as that starter. "Sorrow"
features some of Rose's best guitar riffs to date. The back half of
"Sorrow" has these delicate strings, like synthesizer drones, but
incredibly calming. It's a proper single, great pop structure and an organic
instrumental to go with the lyrics: "Don't ask me why there is so
much trouble, constantly sifting through rubble. Don't ask me why, why we don't
follow, why we must break, steal and borrow." Herein Wild isn't the
light follow-up, Rose enters third album territory with all guns blazing. “You For Me" strangely powers through the opening track with some much needed distortion
break from the reverberation. However it doesn’t last long and before you know
it Rose is relishing the echo effects. "Into Blue" is familiar territory,
breezy soft vocals and riffs galore. It just never takes off, apart from the
three chord standard chorus which passes through time and becomes instantly
forgettable when listening to Herein Wild in full.
Massive segments of Herein Wild are completely out of the ordinary for Rose.
It's a passage that can be taken by surprise, or by a desired effect.
"Cliffs As High" opens with a rather peculiar acappella section, then
comes down in a charade of piano effects and string accompaniment. It sounds
somewhat sweet, but for only two and a half minutes of a recording, it's completely
bland and uninteresting. Same goes for "Minor Times". It sounds like
your typical car manufacturer late at night advert music. The chorus is also
very similar to "Into Blue", one of my biggest gripes... When a
chorus starts and progresses in the same fashion throughout an album, very
repetitive.
It's not all wear and tear material though, many tracks on Herein Wild
are keepers. "Heaven" is a change of scenery. There’s a thunderous rhythm
guitar riff surrounding the vocal drones and bass riffs. And it's the bass that
takes centre stage on Rose's best tracks with album number three. "The Depths" is made listenable due to its magnificent sounding bass riff. Take
out this riff and you're left with an unfinished and incomplete track that wouldn’t
make a B-sides compilation. This bass riff and the further rhythm guitar riff
make "The Depths" one of the few memorable tracks on Herein Wild.
"Question Reason" takes the listener back to the stark days of Interstellar,
it was only a year ago remember. This back album thriller includes a
challenging keyboard riff, typical Rose vocals and cordial sounding percussion.
"Street Of Dreams" tops off the standout tracks. This pre-release
single made its mark on my listening habits in August. It wasn't just the similarities
to its Interstellar counterpart "Night Swim", but the
ambience, atmosphere and synthesizer pattern towards its close. This is
Rose's most sinister track to date,
baring comparisons to the dark British ethereal 80s, The Cure, Siouxsie
& The Banshees, Bauhaus.
Strangely, the final synthesizer instrumental segment leads nowhere. The
pre-release suggest a lead off, something the final track could with it as a
build-up. It just comes to a close, without any real direction or purpose. It
would work as an alone track, at the helm of the album perhaps; but not as the
final segment of the penultimate track. This creates a backlash of unexpected
instrumentation from the finale which is quite frankly a let-down.
"Requiem" caps off Herein
Wild with two minutes of acoustic guitar reverb and a trumpet. The recurring
lyrics of: "I'm afraid hell and heaven are the same," stand
out alongside the track title. Herein Wild's finale is a shortcoming. It
was almost expected to be something of an ambient build-up, but the trumpets
are okay too. Trumpets have a long standing relation to death and
endings, so using this instrument for the first time signals the closing time
on Herein Wild. Rose recorded her third album in just over a month, that’s
not long at all. The writing process and recording process has been cut short,
though this isn't rushed in the slightest. The production is actually remarkable,
very clear sounding guitars and outstanding reverb effects on Rose's layered
vocals. Herein Wild jumps out of the gun too soon. It's one year ahead
of schedule and the instrumentals show. Rose can bang out an album in a month
with ease, but is this really the way musicians should be operating in 2013.
Take your time, get down stronger tracks so "Cliffs As High" can be
omitted. Herein Wild is a decent effort, but ultimately falls down with
repetitive structures and soundscapes. The newcomer can pick up this album and
love it, but for the Frankie Rose followers and new wave / dream pop fans, this
doesn’t cut it in the big leagues.
~Eddie
7.0
