Rose, Frankie / Thee Only One

Slumberland

As a founding member, songwriter, instrumentalist, and vocalist in Vivian Girls and drummer and occasional vocalist in Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose has been an integral part of two of the most highly acclaimed and influential groups to come out of Brooklyn's still-vital music scene in the past several years. Her solo project not only reflects the earmarks of both those groups, but also reveals her as a fully-formed artist in her own right. Ms. Rose's music is haunted by the ghosts of '60s girl group Brill Building and '80s and '90s noise-pop in equal measure. It's a spooky, lovely sound--her ethereal yet affectation-free voice swirling in a sea of church-like harmonies over a bed of tambourines, bells, and propulsive drumming. Recalling in spirit groups like The Aislers Set and Black Tambourine, Rose's music is timeless and immediate, both deeply personal and completely universal. Pitchfork cited "Where Do You Run To?" as one of the best songs of 2008, and after much anticipation Slumberland presents Rose's debut single. Recorded at Marlborough Farms Studio with Gary Olson, Kyle Forrester, and Crystal Stilts' J.B. Townsend, "Thee Only One" is a perfect slice of surf-tinged noise-pop. Laden with rumbling reverb and tangy guitar twang, it's an ideal tune with which to wrap up another (almost) endless summer. On the flip, "Hollow Life" is a more subdued affair--spectral psychedelia that resembles nothing so much as Opal's Kendra Smith at her most haunting. Building to a mesmerizing crescendo, "Hollow Life" is a sublime complement to "Thee Only One," rounding out this single in fine fashion.

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