Frank Eddie – Let's Be Frank

The new project from Lemon Jelly’s Fred Deakin feels uncomfortably like a novelty record, and a rather dated one at that: Let’s Be Frank is a collection of fairly straightforward, inoffensive electronica tracks mashed up with various R&B, soul and pop vocal lines. Although Deakin teases some flashes of inspiration out of this approach  – particularly on higher-tempo tracks like Bite That – the record generally feels slapdash and lacking in vision. 
 
The key problem with Let’s Be Frank is Deakin’s failure to stamp his own personality upon the whole; instead, he tends to let the genre and tone of each vocal sample dictate his musical approach, and the result often sounds more like a straight-faced muzak compilation than a mashup record. His ear for pop hooks, however, ensures that Let’s Be Frank is an unerringly accessible, dancefloor-friendly LP, which makes some amends for its lack of ambition and structure.