Frankie Rose was either a late bloomer or simply didn’t know how to funnel her talent until now. That’s the knee-jerk reaction to Interstellar, her defining sophomore album that makes her 2010 self-titled debut as Frankie Rose and the Outs sound like a half-hearted rehearsal for her latest. On Interstellar, she sheds comparisons to other like-minded bands she once played with, including Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls. A major step forward, this new album sounds nothing like the work of her peers. Rose is no longer mining 1960s girl-group pop, instead taking her cues from ’80s guitar bands like the Smiths and the Cure. She has also dialed down the distortion for a clean, sparkling sound. You never would have connected to a line such as “All that I want is / A pair of wings to fly / Into the blue of wide open sky” (taken from “Pair of Wings”) because it would have been buried on her previous album. On “Know Me,” the first single, the melody is so infectious and winsome, it sounds like the work of another artist altogether. And this time she compels you to pay attention. MORE
