Dog In the Sand

Now that he's released more albums as a solo artist than with the Pixies, Frank Black seems comfortable with his place in alternative rock's history. Instead of avoiding the anachronistic tendencies of his old band and his first two solo albums, on Dog in the Sand he embraces them. A happy marriage of his recent work's directness and the whimsical rock of Frank Black and Teenager of the Year, the album also features the return of Eric Drew Feldman and Joey Santiago, which should let longtime Black fans know that this is a more inspired collection than Frank Black and the Catholics or The Cult of Ray. His most interesting work since Teenager of the Year, Dog in the Sand sounds like a slightly slower, rootsier version of that album. The angular riffs and surreal lyrics ("I'm in a Beckett trance/From all that chemical") of "Blast Off" recall Black's heyday mixed with the rougher, spontaneous feel of his Catholics work, as does the epic "Robert Onion," which sounds like a distant cousin to Teenager's "Freedom Rock." The Stones-ish "Hermaphroditos" is one of Black's most convincing rockers in years, and features some great, Black Francis-style lyrics: "Forget your yin/And go f*ck your yang." And if they were faster, spaghetti Western ballads like "Bullet" and "Llano del Rio" — a song about California's first Socialist collective — could fit on Doolittle. But Dog in the Sand doesn't rehash Black's past triumphs, it expands on them. "I'll Be Blue" and "St. Francis Dam Disaster" prove that his ballads keep growing more genuine and emotional; rootsy pop songs like "Stupid Me," "I've Seen Your Picture," and "If It Takes All Night" feature pedal steel, banjo, and understated keyboards in their thoughtful arrangements. Dog in the Sand may not inspire everyone who listens to it to form their own bands, but it offers its own, lasting pleasures; the most influential years of Black's career might be in the past, but this album makes it clear that not all of his best work is.