By Jim Rowland

Artwork for Teenager Of The Year by Frank BlackThe second solo album from Frank Black, ‘Teenager Of The Year’, is widely regarded as the peak of the Pixies main man’s considerable solo output, and for some the best album the Pixies never made. Thirty years on, it gets a special anniversary vinyl issue, providing an opportunity to reassess the album, and quite possibly hear it in a sonic quality never heard before.

A sprawling album, ‘Teenager Of The Year’ clocks in around the 60 minute mark, and features a whopping 22 tracks, five of which feature Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago guesting. With a lot of Black’s solo material there is a greater separation from the sound of Pixies, but with this one it’s not hard to see the connection and understand those “best album the Pixies never made” comments in retrospect.

The likes of ‘Whatever Happened To Pong?’, ‘Two Reelers’, ‘The Hostess With The Mostess’ and ‘Bad, Wicked World’ are all short, sharp shocks of the fast and furious energy that Pixies conjured up an many occasions during their original tenure. Equally, tracks like ‘Calistan’, ‘The Vanishing Spies’ and ‘White Noise Maker’, whilst sitting back a little more, bear many of the hallmarks of Black’s then former band. That said, this album was never a carbon copy of Pixies, as illustrated by several diversions like the reggae groove of ‘Fiddle Riddle’ and the quirky nature of tracks like ‘Superabound’ and ‘Big Red’.

This anniversary reissue is available in digital format, but the real star of the show is the double gold vinyl edition, which has been newly remastered and cut at 45RPM, so the sound of this little classic is guaranteed to jump out of your speakers like it never has before. If you’re partial to a bit of Pixies but have never explored this album, this is the perfect place to see what you have been missing. If you’re already familiar, this could be a highly worthwhile upgrade from that tatty old original CD.

To mark the occasion, Frank Black in the here and now has embarked on a short ‘The Teenager Of The Year Tour’ comprising 11 ÜS and Canadian shows before finishing with two European shows in Paris on 4 February and the London Palladium on 6 February.