FRANKS FOR THE MUSIC

FrankMusik / Complete Me

FrankMusik is just a bit of an enigma in today's current musical landscape. This year was to be remembered as the year of the female synth/electropopper (Little Boots, La Roux, Lady GaGa...) until FrankMusik came along. FrankMusik's debut (Vince to his friends) is an assured and thrilling record which shows that you don't have to don a pair of heels to produce a great electro-based pop song.

From the very start of the album we are hit with pounding jerky synths in the form of In Step, a sharp portrayal of a failed music career: "You made a hit / But you can't hear it being played / Cause you my friend have had your day." FrankMusik is definitely staking his claim here and rightly so. With Complete Me he has done something very very special...he's created a diverse and exciting electropop record which has pure emotion running through its core, yes you heard it correctly La Roux EMOTION.

In terms of lyrics Vince clearly writes from the heart and his experiences of love luckily transfer into amazing pop songs. Take Confusion Girl for instance. An unabashedly solid gold pop song, Vince sings of a girl who just can't make up her mind in the love department while backed by a future-pop crescendo of bleeps, blips and a touch of strings. This heady mix makes for that timeless pop song which slowly but surely works its way into your psyche whether you like it or not, to the point where all you can do is simply realise its brilliance. Such moments crop up a lot in this album with the stonkers that are 3 Little Words, Better Off As 2 and Gotta Boyfriend? However, it doesn't end there with FrankMusik using samples to incredible effect by creating the unstoppable Time Will Tell with the help of M/A/A/R/S's classic Pump Up The Volume, and also through his indescribable interpretation of The Strangler's Golden Brown in the song When You're Around (which you can read me bang on about in greater detail below). Even Wonder Woman with its slightly aimless lyrics: "Cos' Wonder Woman even gets her nails done" still manages to come out trumps in the catchability factor.

However, its not all punchy pop as FrankMusik also delves into the slow and moody territory, with great success may I add. Many pop albums often fall flat due to mawkish and generic ballads yet Vince somehow uses these moments to slip the listener into a different atmosphere while still retaining the album's thrill and excitement. Your Boy is a good example of this as it appears at a key moment in the album when we are delivered with 4 blasting tracks in succession then suddenly a gear change occurs and you come to this much slower almost power ballad-y track and unbelievably...it works! Vacant Heart is in a similar vein to Your Boy and again works well in changing the mood while still retaining the album's direction and pop flair. Sadly this power ballad-esque vibe doesn't work so well on the title track which seems to sacrifice substance for hollow over the top-ness. Although, this is a minor bump in the road as other moodier successes crop up at the end of the album with the subtly pounding emotion of Done Done and the truly EPIC Run Away From Trouble which literally explodes near to the end of the track as you start to contemplate that Vince can muster up more than just a pop song.

With the help of acclaimed producer Stuart Price Vince has created a fantastic electropop record filled with quick heady thrills, blissed out emotion and pure pop euphoria. There's a new star in town and his name is FrankMusik.

★★★★