Dog In The Sand

It's the sound of a man finding a new place for himself, liking it, and reveling in it.

Dog In The Sand' is unquestionably Frank Black's finest solo album.

Frank Black has dug in deep for this one, and come up with an album that captures the essence of his roots while expanding the realm he's been entrenched in over the last few years.

His most interesting work since Teenager of the Year, Dog in the Sand sounds like a slightly slower, rootsier version of that album.

He sounds fierce on his new album, and that's a welcome change.

This is Black's strongest set of songs since 1994's second solo selection, Teenager Of The Year, largely because the trademark wit and weirdness is back.

There is an inflammatory urgency here that reminds you of why Kurt Cobain considered Black an almost saintly figure. [Feb. 2001, p.88]

Strangely enough, it seems the further Black distances himself from his heroic work in The Pixies, the better he gets.

By this time, though, even Frank may be chafing at the limitations of their bar-band sound, staunch as he is in refusing to do overdubs or even edits in the recording process. Fortunately, there are just enough tweaks to that process this time out to enliven the resulting album, making it his most diverse and listenable since Teenager of the Year.

His third record with the Catholics, "Dog In The Sand," furthers the ex-Pixies frontman's recent explorations into bare-bones rock'n'roll.

Dog has a strong, old-school rock and roll feel to it.