The Pixies reunion didn’t yield a proper studio album, but it did seem to encourage frontman Frank Black to pick up, dust off, and resume wearing his ancient stage name, Black Francis. No one else was using it. In theory, Bluefinger pays tribute to the late Dutch painter and musician Herman Brood, whom Black Francis credits as another catalyst for the new assumption of the old identity. In actuality, the album fairly constitutes a return to noisy form.
After the Memphis sessions and session men that Black employed for 2005’s Honeycomb and last year’s double-disc Fast Man Raider Man, his new crew — including Guards Of Metropolis drummer Jason Carter and Visible Men bassist Dan Schmid — loosens the professional grip but tightens the attack.
With tinny guitar, trebly rhythm section, and growling vocals enhanced by Mark Lemhouse’s punk production, the best tracks resemble B-sides the Pixies might have recorded on a good day, then set aside for reasons no one can remember years later. “Threshold Apprehension” pounces and yelps; “She Took All The Money” substitutes Violet Clarke for Kim Deal within a sashaying blues; and “Discotheque 36” puts our antihero as close to roots-rock as he’s ever likely to get.
When Black actually nods to Brood, he turns throwaway performances into fine trash. His cover of Brood’s own “You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It” almost makes sense of the old eccentric, and the eulogy “Angels Come To Comfort You” earnestly reaches for heaven. The face of Frank Black is behind the Black Francis mask, but his soul is on his sleeve.