** Frank Black and the Catholics

PISTOLERO

(spinART)

Opting for the direct approach again, Frank Black convened his new band, the Catholics, for 10 days of recording straight to two-track. That's more than twice as long as they took with Frank Black and the Catholics, but it still wasn't long enough to work the kind of magic Black has achieved in the past, both as the leader of the Pixies and on his second solo disc, Teenager of the Year. Black has obviously come to favor a stripped-down approach, and though his band are more than capable -- they're tight and forceful throughout the disc -- it's the stripping down of the songs that's the problem. Black's real songwriting successes have come when he's thrown listeners for a loop, sometimes three or four times in a single track. Classics like "Debaser" and newer, lesser-known numbers like "Thalassocracy" were relentlessly weird, dropping beats -- even whole measures -- and twisting through chord changes that by all rights were just plain wrong. This new crop of songs is tuneful and catchy enough, but the closer Black gets to normal, the easier he is to ignore.

-- Ben Auburn