Frankie Rose Makes Life Tougher for Journalists

In the past, writing about Frankie Rose was easy work for us journalists. Whether she was playing the drums with a host of buzz-worthy projects (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls) or fronting her band the Outs, we could pretty much just throw a list of buzz-words at a wall and chances are that most of them would stick. You know the ones: "fuzz pop," "lo-fi," "shitgaze." And the music was excellent, so it was a cinch to shower her with praise without the need to formulate an original thought.

With her first fully-fledged solo effort, however, Rose has left us scrambling for a whole new set of reference points. On Interstellar (due out Feb. 21), she's ditched the mucky production values and ventured into a sound that's much more spacious, atmospheric, and altogether harder to define.

The first sound you'll hear on Interstellar is the celestial synthscape that opens the title track, and this provides a heavenly backdrop for Frankie to coo about "moon dust" and "moving swiftly on the interstellar highway." This stunner of an opener soon erupts into thundering drums and a titanic "oh-oh-oh" refrain, and the songwriter ends up covering as much musical territory within the course of three-and-a-half minutes as she has in her entire career.

Rose still knows her way around an unforgettable melody (remember, it was her who penned Vivian Girls' career-defining "Where Do You Run To"), and upbeat cuts like "Know Me" and "Night Swim" reaffirm her status as one of indiedom's best pop craftswomen. Some of Interstellar's finest moments, however, come during the moments of vibe-heavy sonic exploration: the gorgeously snaky "Moon in My Mind" threatens to explode into a new wave banger, but instead simmers eerily, while sublime closer "The Fall" sounds like Kid A as interpreted with a cello and a choir of angels.

Yes, the journalists will find more buzz-worthy comparisons to latch onto. We'll liken Interstellar to Cocteau Twins and Spiritualized, and make references to new age music and possibly namedrop Enya just to ruffle a few feathers. But by retooling her sound, she will make us put just a little more effort into those rave reviews.

Of course, if she can keep putting out albums as good as Interstellar, the extra work will all be worth it.

[Tags: Music.]