Having spent the last few years serving behind the kit with assorted Brooklyn-based lo-fi projects (Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls), Frankie Rose put down the sticks for a 2010 solo album, credited to Frankie Rose & the Outs, and now operates as a Rose by another name as she follows with this, her second full-length. On Interstellar, Rose finally makes the leap away from that influential but restrictive garage scene to reveal another side to her musical references, by producing a trim but expressive soundscape which serves as an homage to the more accessible elements of 1980s New Wave (with Rose particularly indebted to the Cure).
When Interstellar works, it really works, as Rose's soft and cosy multi-tracked vocals float loosely and nonchalantly over a melodic concoction of sharp drum sounds, shimmery synths and edgy guitars. The spacey extended intro and ensuing tribal drums of the catchy title track set the energy meter adequately high. Further thrilling moments on singles 'Know Me' ('80s chart-pop hooks complement a nod-along beat) and 'Night Swim' (an exciting conglomeration of Rose's unabashed New Wave influences which ends all too abruptly) are reverb-swathed indie-pop at its best. Shifting down a gear, a tender susceptibility prevails over the melodramatic but affecting 'Pair of Wings'.
Interstellar cannot trump these glimpses of excitement and in spite of Rose's astral aspirations, the album does not quite take off. Rose finds her feet when making concessions to pop and her high standard is not sustained across the album's ten tracks. 'Apples for the Sun' is a percussion-free anomaly with a less instant feel, while 'Moon in My Mind', although menacing and distinctive, is just too derivative to be fulfilling. The lack of substance of some tracks suggests insipid filler. Several cuts function as mere variations on a theme and an unengaging stasis inhibits the album from scaling the heights of which Rose is capable. Finally, for better or for worse, shades of our own new-age queen of the ether Enya are hard to ignore in Rose's vocals (give a listen to the cello-backed dream-pop of album closer 'The Fall').
In the end, Interstellar is a collection of punchy but conventional synth-pop. As a dreamy take on 1980s New Wave, concerned with all things cosmic, the album twinkles and sparkles as one might expect. Suitably breezy for much of its half-hour duration, with an appropriate lightness of touch, Frankie Rose displays an accomplished pop sensibility and Interstellar represents a commendable new direction for her. Though originality may not be a prime concern of hers, there is enough energy and versatility here to suggest that Rose can cut it on her own.
Review by Killian Barry
