Greta Kline, otherwise known as Frankie Cosmos, is an indie rock project that started in 2014 with the release of Zentrophy, an album that I did listen to enough to have written a formal review, but I passed on it because I just felt so 'meh' on it. That had a lot to do with the fact that the album felt as young as the artist putting it together (she was 19 at the time, as was I) and that left a lot of the tracks feeling a bit hollow and thrown together. Also, the album was incredibly short, with track lengths that only flirted with the 2:30 minute mark. So, going into this new LP, I was hoping for a bit more body and sharper, catchier songs, but is that what I got?
To the former; no, because while there are more tracks here, they again, only flirt with the idea of being over two minutes, and the tracks themselves have the tendency to feel like small ideas of songs and not fully formed tunes, like the track "If I Had A Dog" or the entirely pointless interlude track. However, I have to admit, when the songs actually feel like fully formed songs, they're darn catchy. In fact, despite only being a little under a minute and a half, the opener "Floated In" is a great track, that totally reminds me of slacker 90's rock from the likes of Pavement.
And the album has other bright moments like this, such as the track "Too Dark", "Fool" and the heartfelt closer "O Dreaded C Town" which seems to be about a destructive friend who Greta used to be close with. This track is especially nice because it changes the sonic scenery a little bit; something this LP could of used a lot more.
I'm not expecting Sufjan Stevens levels of instrumentation, but I would have enjoyed more sounds than the cleanly strummed guitars that this album is covered with. And this fact only highlights how, even though the LP isn't all that long, it feels a little tiresome to listen through in one sitting.
So yeah, this album is an improvement over Zentrophy, but I can't say that I am very excited to hear whats next in the Frankie Cosmos canon.
6.5/10
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