Frank and Walters:Classic or dud

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In response to Keith's plea...Frank and Walters...Classic or dud? I got their album a few years back. I cant remember the name of it but it was the one with "Fashion crisis hits New York" and "After all". I liked it at first but got really annoying after 5 listens. I saw them live a year ago and their new stuff was crap. Indie-schmindie bollocks. All my friends seem to like them though.

― Michael Bourke, Saturday, 10 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If they hadn't made a comeback they would've been classic. "Trains, Boats and Planes" was such an upbeat album...lots of silly songs and they looked happy. But then they came back and looked washed out and jaded, I think I listened to "Glass" once or twice. "Beauty becomes more than life" is really good though! And I don't have their second album. So I would say 60% classic.

― jel, Sunday, 11 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A band which should never have gone away - because as soon as they went away they had to make a comeback which was always going to colour their original half arsed stupidness. The stuff produced by Edwin Collins though - classic. Fashion Crisis Hits New York and Happy Busman (infact all the tracks on the first three EP's). Anything else - Dud. Even by the time of Trains, Boats and Planes they seemed tired. Trainspotters was F&W by numbers. Now they are hideous.

― Pete, Monday, 12 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

By Zeus what next? Wonderstuff: Classic or Dud? Cud: C or D? James: C or D? Oh yeah I almost forgot, Frank and Walters: dud!

― Omar, Monday, 12 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wacky loon-panted tripe.

― cw, Monday, 12 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I totally side with Omar on this. NO MORE TWO-BIT FAILED INDIE BANDS IN CLASSIC OR DUD!

And, yes, absolute dud. They sounded like the house band on a pre- school kids show.

― Tom, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

but, but, but two bit failed indie bands are what we love tom (or is it just me). Strangely we were talking about F&W in the pub on Sunday and i think we decided dud.

Bennett (Mum has gone to Iceland (as played at panic on thursday)) classic or dud anyone?

― carsmilesteve, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So, I can't post "Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Classic or Dud?" This is censorship I tell ya, censorship! :)

― jel, Wednesday, 14 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four years pass...

[blows thick layer of dust off thread]

i bought the best-of the other day. (yes, i know. there's a best-of the frank and walters. i was astonished too.) now, i know the weight of history is against me here, but really ... they were fucking great. well: some of the time, at least. "fashion crisis" is still a genuinely transportive piece of nineties indie melancholy, and there's something about the melodies of "after all", "this is not a song" and all the early stuff in general that seems in some way hardwired to the heart of a 19-year-old that beats somewhere within me still.

i think i actually have their last two albums somewhere - the "serious" ones. it's at times like this i rather wish i'd taken more time filing my CDs.

anyway. classic, and if you disagree you can fuck off (in a twee, turtleneck-wearing, bowl-cutted way). did i read somewhere that there was a new album planned?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 7 August 2005 14:33 (nineteen years ago)

yeah they are to have a new album out probably early next year it's called 'renewed interest in happiness'. there are three serious albums, the first two were great, the last one not so much but I blame it on the fact that flood produced it and they made some lame attempt at incorporating technology into things. the music is earnest(i know how that is seen as an epithet by most here) and mostly filled with joy and you can't help smiling when listening to them. totally classic. 'michael' is still my favorite.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 7 August 2005 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

superb!

the "serious" albums i have are - i think - "glass" and "beauty becomes more than life", although i'm doing this from memory/what i saw when i was searching for this thread. what's the other one called?

there's a song on this best-of called "underground", which i remember from one of those albums. right now i'm listening to "time we said goodnight", which is a nigh-on perfect combination of bombast and melodic sensibility. they should go back in time and choose a better name; they'd have been huge. and i should go back into the music cupboard and find those CDs.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 7 August 2005 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

the other is called 'gtand parade' and i think it's their best record because it has the serious songs and some more colourful, carefree songs as well. also the ep/mini-lp 'indian ocean' is fantastic too. two repeats from 'grand parade' but then one of the repeats is a different, sped-up and better version of a song on the album. also the b-sides to the colours single are fantastic too.

'underground' is on "glass" which is my least favorite.

this board has lots of info on what they are doing now.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

Dunno about the recording but I've always thought that this

http://www.parrstreet.co.uk/frank95.jpg

was a lovely album cover.

― mzui (mzui), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

looking at their website it appears that a b-sides compilation is also imminent.

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

thanks keith, that's very helpful.

i know i've got a promo of the "colours" single somewhere, and there's a slim chance i've got "grand parade" too ... the reason it's not sticking in my mind will be that it'll be a promo, hence in some crappy slip-sleeve that i never see in the cupboard of doom.

(xpost)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 7 August 2005 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

The Franks are classic. I've never heard pop so perfect. New song on their myspace from the new album - its not pop - it more monster rock classic. Called Country Boy - www.myspace.com/thefrankandwalters.ie

― cillin o flynn (daftIndie), Sunday, 10 September 2006 17:36 (eighteen years ago)

does flood have anything to do with the new album? i hope not.

― keyth (keyth), Sunday, 10 September 2006 18:00 (eighteen years ago)

No. They went with an unknown Ciaran Lynch. He really made a good job of it. Richard Rainey did one of the singles - its good but I prefer Ciarans work. Its not a typical Franks album - not serious but not throwaway. I'm addicted but then I'm always going to be.

― cillin o flynn (daftIndie), Sunday, 10 September 2006 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

I was completely CRAZY about these guys when they first came out, their first two EP's. I think I actually still have them, but I'm not sure.

― I am not Ted Nugent (Bimble...), Monday, 11 September 2006 09:06 (eighteen years ago)

Holy shit! I do!

― I am not Ted Nugent (Bimble...), Monday, 11 September 2006 09:07 (eighteen years ago)

they've got great songs, it's funny how listening to their best of you realize how many hits they actually had, and how catchy they were.

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 11 September 2006 11:40 (eighteen years ago)

Okay I've pulled out the first two EP's now. I'm not sure how I feel about it, though. It doesn't sound as good now as it did then. Maybe it just brings back bad memories, I dunno. I'm on the fence with this one.

― I am not Ted Nugent (Bimble...), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:46 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

"A Renewed Interest In Happiness" is all the upbeat poppy goodness I need in this world right now. It's a simple but clear message: we may be an indie-schmindie band but we believe in you, you deserve more, hold on and keep fighting! Yes!!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 21 December 2009 01:12 (fifteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Still going, I saw them live at the weekend. I doubt they'd win any converts but the new stuff is fine, the old stuff sounds as good as ever. They wore identical red shirts and black ties, a choice eventually explained by a balls out cover of The Model - https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1156334781045555

― lurch of england (ledge), Monday, 25 September 2023 09:13 (one year ago)

I was kind of ashamed of my teenage love for them for a long time but fuck it I will never not find the bellowing desperate conviction of 'Happy Busman' moving and melancholy.

― woof, Monday, 25 September 2023 09:39 (one year ago)

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