Search - Frankie Sparo :: Welcome Crummy Mystics

Junkmedia.org Review - Worth checking out

junkmedia | Los Angeles, CA | 03/23/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Frankie Sparo's first album, My Red Scare, was a welcome change for Montreal's Constellation Records. The promise of the label's future looked mixed: what could they bring to the picture beyond droning post-rock? Sparo's debut was incomparable to any previous Constellation release, focusing more on the basic elements of voice and guitar than apocalyptic guitar marathons or endless repetition. The concept was simple and effective, with subtle instrumentation coloring Sparo's engaging lyrics. With Sparo's arrival, it became clear that Constellation wasn't after a definitive sound, but a defined aesthetic, rooted in the basics of DIY and experimentation -- and a lack of compromise.Welcome Crummy Mystics, Sparo's second full length, reveals different concerns than his debut. The opening tracks don't support this new direction, and then things begin to unravel. The following two numbers, "Akzidenz Grotesk" and "Back On Speed," introduce us to Sparo's rock and roll side, where he adopts a trashier voice to accompany the shift in style. This isn't pop music, though, and the songs revel in juxtaposing '60s pop techniques with Sparo's naturally sinister and morbid style. For instance, a choir of harmonizers singing "nah nah na na" pops up as a stark contrast to Sparo's exasperated moaning in "Akzidenz Grotesk." The song's brevity is its chief strength. "Back On Speed" (as the title unsurprisingly suggests) continues rocking, complete with riffs, maracas, and an even more damaged approach to vocals, like a baritone Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse). The shift in style from the first set of two songs to the second is like following up a mug of strong, black coffee with a glass of grapefruit juice. The second half of the album serves as a lazy Sunday afternoon to the first half's destructive Saturday night.Welcome Crummy Mystics showcases Sparo's progress as a singer/songwriter/arranger, and his flair for eccentricity. While the rock element can be appreciated as a personal innovation for Sparo, it disrupts a potentially great album, and comes off as an attempt to insert some overt variety amidst familiar elements. If you follow Constellation but haven't yet checked out Sparo, you're missing out -- even if a non-compromised product means, in this case, a less unified one.Ben Gill
Junkmedia.org Review"