Black Francis - Nonstoperotik

Having reverted to his Pixies-era moniker of Black Francis in 2007 – in a move that fooled precisely no one – Nonstoperotik finds flaccid Frank struggling to reassert his musical potency with a collection of songs inspired by his love of the female anatomy. As if that concept alone didn't reek of impending mid-life crisis, the actual music is even more shagged-out; an unfocused hotchpotch that recalls the bar-band bluster of his work with The Catholics – the crucial point being that The Catholics were the best damn bar-band you could ever hope to hear and Black has sounded lost since they disbanded some seven years ago. Only album-closer Cinema Star manages to revisit the melodic, oddball glories of Black's solo heyday: it's a bona-fide gem but it doesn't allow us to un-hear preceding travesties such as When I Go Down on You - a track even more queasily inane than its title suggests. [Mark Shukla]