A combination of unpretentious rattle doll with catchy, melodic vocals and harmony vocals and a boyish image seems to be a typical genre of the British Isles. Think of the Wedding Present, The Housemartins and of course Orange Juice. The British quintet Frankie & The Heartstrings not only audibly harks back to these traditions, but also asked Edwyn Collins (Orange Juice) as producer. The group
… cannot do any harm on their debut album Hunger. The cheerful music rattles on all sides and the rhythms run unsteadily and sometimes downright jerky, but singer Frankie Francis has a golden throat from which he conjures one sympathetic melody after another, accompanied by razor-sharp choirs. In the CD booklet they present themselves as a bunch of cheerful dandies who like to hang out in the pub. There is no doubt that this CD, which is as charming as it is British, was planned in advance. (MR)more
