Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of August 4th-10th, 2014:
Frankie Teardrop - Raiders
01. Raiders
02. 100%
03. No More Drugs
04. She Kept Lyin
05. Personal Hell
06. It Takes Time
This is Frankie Teardrop's second time appearing here as an AOTW. Back in November of 2013 I spent a week with his debut EP Tough Guy. Back then I wrote that I couldn't tell if the songs were "garage rock songs polished up or pop songs stripped down." While that's still the case with Raiders, it's becoming clear that Frankie's pop-rock heart beats strong & clear.
Raiders shows a welcome amount of growth from an artist who's last record contained songs like "Pizza Lyfestyle" and "New Beverage." The record's opening one-two punch of "Raiders" & "100%," stands as the best two songs Frankie's written to date (if you're a fan of the Flatbasset Radio podcast you might remember us opening with "Raiders" a few weeks back). Both are energetic, catchy, & poppy and benefit greatly from the addition of a second guitarist. Lyrically, however, they start hinting at some of the darker subject matter to come.
As you can probably imagine just from the titles of the last four tracks, Frankie's songwriting has taken a turn for the personal (though I'm willing to bet "Pizza Lyfestyle" was personal in its own way). The band is young enough that emotional turmoil of the second half of the album rings clear. For example, "She Kept Lyin" is not an angry, detached dig at said liar as much as it is an explanation of mood. The record ends on relatively positive note with "It Takes Time," which finds Frankie showing the maturity to understand that, well, things take time.
My friend Adam recently described Frankie Teardrop as "Bauhaus covering the Beach Boys," which nails their sound pretty well. I finally caught these guys a couple of weeks back at the 10,000 Sounds Festival and I can attest to the "you really have to see them live" reputation that they've earned. The band's trajectory from Tough Guy to Raiders is an encouraging one and I'm excited to see where these guys go next. Until then, really, you should see them live.
Raiders was self-released by Frankie Teardrop on his brand new No Problem Records. If you'd like to check it out for yourself head over to the Bandcamp site where the record's available as a "Name Your Price" download.
