After ten years living as Frank Black, Charles Thompson has returned to his pre-solo moniker of Black Francis. And while Frank has been becoming ever more sedate, it seems that Francis has been bouncing around inside the walls of Thompson’s head getting increasingly agitated.

So, let’s ditch the confusion of names and just get on with answer the question you’re desperate to have answered: Is this the new Pixies album we’ve been waiting for since the band reformed. Well, yes and no. Unable to get the other three Pixies into the studio, Francis eventually gave up and went in without them.

The result, save for those missing band members, is the album Pixies fans have been waiting for. Far from the disastrous cliché we’d always feared it could be, it’s actually quite brilliant. Black manages to reawaken an old alter ego without going back to the past and trying to pick up where he left off. His vocal delivery still verges on the edge of a total freak out but this is still definitely the work of a man older and wiser.

It may not really be a Pixies album (though substitutes Violet Clark on vocals, Dan Schmid on bass and Jason Carter on drums do a very good job) but it’s as close as you’re going to get and very nearly as exciting.

Label: Cooking Vinyl
Website: www.blackfrancis.net
Release date: 3rd September 2007

Tracklist:

1. Captain Pasty
2. Threshold Apprehension
3. Test Pilot Blues
4. Lolita
5. Tight Black Rubber
6. Angels Come To Comfort You
7. Your Mouth Into Mine
8. Discotheque 36
9. You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It
10. She Took All The Money
11. Bluefinger