Indie R&B ?
While a transplant in Los Angeles from his native New Orleans, the themes here are all California Dreamin'. Not that I want to paint a hippie-dippie picture of the songs here at all. Frank pretty much regrets everything that's ever happened to him. But he laments uniquely.
"Sweet Life" has him describing the life of an upscale protagonist who apparently can't see the forest for the trees. "You’ve had a landscaper and a housekeeper since you were born / So why see the world when you got the beach" He can be interestingly descriptive in a unfamiliar way when the main point is still the pop truisms of: I love you, I miss you, I dream for something better.
And frankly (pun not intended) some of this kept me from connecting fully with the songs. "Crack Rock" is a fantastic mellow jazz party, but what do I know of smoking crack and killing cops. Songs about parties at mansions in the Hills and stage diving Dalai Lamas. It's certainly clever and performed well, but there's a reason I dubbed it "indie" before.
I did get to be wow'ed before the album ended with a couple of tracks. "Bad Religion" which gets to mourn unrequited love in the back of a cab. And "Pink Matter" which I may have dismissed for its philosophical musings with Sensei. That is until Andre 3000 comes out of nowhere to rhyme a perfect interlude.
Frank is going to get great accolades... and not just for his open letters. He's a unique voice in R&B. I would certainly like to see him mix his lyrical ambition with something more stylized on the musical side than the spare production that he gave here. But he'll have a big future... or he'll go the way of Cody ChesnuTT. (3 of 5 stars)
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