(Gazelle/Vitamin)

Female singer-songwriter with solid folk tunes

It's nice to hear a record that does more than it has to. Moving to Berlin in 2004 and living in Sydney prior to that, Frankie has sent Pocketknife into the world as her first LP, far removed from vacuous candy-coated pop ditties. Pocketknife sees Frankie craft dense, rich, dramatic folk songs. It has the air of certainty and confidence of someone like Kate Bush and has not only sound songwriting, but decent arrangements too. Often a singer-songwriter’s record is a vehicle for a vocal performance and the instruments are an afterthought to fill in the silence, but this record actually sounds as if it has been fully and properly thought out. Boy Wolf is a highlight, serving not only to display Frankie's quite excellent voice (not too shrill, not too deep) but it builds up in an accomplished way that quietly nods 'talent,' and it's a recurring theme for most of the record.

MICHAEL PINCOTT

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