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Attaching the Black Francis moniker to this album might ratchet up expectations too high for rabid Pixies fans, but Bluefinger is a good Charles Thompson album--it's still really enjoyable to hear him have fun and rock out, no matter what name he chooses to use.
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The Pixies' alter ego alludes to Brood either candidly or implicitly in all 11 songs, veering far from the Nashville-and-Memphis tones of the last two Black albums for a return trip to his raucous roots.
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Erstwhile Pixies frontman/rock'n'roll lifer Charles Thompson is back for another round, this time reclaiming his "old" stage name Black Francis and rocking out harder on record than he has in years.
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Bluefinger is probably the sprightliest solo collection of songs Frank Black has recorded to date.
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MagnetLike much of Francis' most compelling work, the album is a mediation on a muse. [Fall 2007, p.96]
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MojoBluefinger marks an artistic rebirth for the king of quiet/loud. [Sep 2007, p.110]
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Bluefinger is, then, a simple, accessible and enjoyable album of rock and blues by a formidable artist rediscovering his scream while maintaining his cultured songwriting abilities.
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The unlikely, ghoulish inspiration of a dead Dutch pop star has forced Pixies' frontman Frank Black into making his finest album since the demise of his influential '90s alt.rockers.
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It's far and away the finest record Frank Black has produced in a long time, and shows that it's time for the old pretenders to show the new pretenders a thing or two about writing a rock song.
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Add an ability to string lyrical and musical narratives together to create a complete whole and Bluefinger should serve as yet another highlight in an already stellar body of work.
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Black Francis' ability to explore familiar themes in a spastic, unfettered manner continues to remind us that uniqueness is not simply skin deep.
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Bluefinger is the best overall solo record Black has released in a long time, but it's still only good, not great.
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Bluefinger is catchy in spots but ultimately forgettable.
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On Bluefinger, it sounds like the Pixies' fantastic reunion shows have allowed Black to finally shed his ambivalence about rocking out. So he does.
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Bluefinger achieves something more admirable than a return to form--it reconciles two decades' worth of forms and revisits an older self without undoing the growth that followed.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 18
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Mixed: 0 out of 18
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Negative: 1 out of 18
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Jul 11, 2011
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bbNov 5, 2007An excellent album that grows and grows upon the listener.
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MarkDOct 17, 2007