So why is Frank Black & Catholics’ Pistolero on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Now that I’m into the Top 30 of this here best 1,000 albums project, I’m trying to make every piece sing as best I can, if you’ll pardon the pun.
We’re talking about Top 30 out of one thousand albums that I’ve painstakingly researched, organized, agonized over. Man, if you only knew how many nerd-fueled anxiety and caffeinated working sessions that have gone into this thing.
Anyway, I’ve long believed that Pistolero is a brilliant “later career” Frank Black album – this one produced with his band, The Catholics – that would end up being placed quite high indeed, but I struggled to find the “hook,” my way into writing about it.
What I did know is that it surprised me a bit – in a similar way to my surprise at how some of R.E.M.’s late career albums weren’t widely loved, even by the band’s superfans – that Pistolero doesn’t appear to be widely acclaimed, to say the least. Heather Phares at All Music calls it “a frustratingly inconsistent album,” for example, while Pitchfork and Rolling Stone didn’t even bother to review it.
But when I started thinking about “Western Star,” my favorite song on the album, and the timing of when Pistolero was released (2004), a few things started clicking into place.
It’s a “big” sounding song, epic-feeling alt rock with a little rockabilly or alt country flair.
This is the version of Frank Black that’s like an alien crash-landed in the Southwest and started a bar band. It’s warm, dusty, muscular but still slightly unearthly. Ethereal and kick ass at the same time. Swagger as survival.
And for some reason I’ve always gravitated to this standout line:
Yo soy un pistolero I’m not shakin’ in my boots
It gets me every time. But why, I asked myself?
I think there’s something in it that I first heard that line during those early freaky, paranoid post-9/11 years and it connected deep within me, perhaps in a more subconscious way than the more overt and literal New York City love letter from the Beastie Boys’ “An Open Letter to New York City” (off of To The 5 Boroughs, #378 of best 1,000 albums ever).
And then there’s the part where I was in my early years of living on the West Coast after growing up on Long Island and a post-college stint living in Queens before heading west.
I was still finding my way as a young man in my career and had in fact recently gotten married after a post “dot bomb” period of unemployment and a panicky decision to get a graduate degree.
So yeah, hearing the ferocious weirdo howl from Frank Black – I’M NOT SHAKIN’ IN MY BOOTS – connected.
And it still does – as a writer, as someone who works in digital media, and as Just Some Dude trying to figure out how to live a life in these troubling, frazzled, disconnected times in the 2020s.
So if you’re a little bit like me, you put on “Western Star” and think, “Fuck yeah, I’m not shakin’ in my boots either, Frank.”
The manic, rollicking “I Think I’m Starting to Lose It” and the thrashy rockabilly punk on speed “I Want to Rock & Roll” also connect to those feelings of defiance and resilience.
But also, importantly: they kick ass. Hard.
On top of “I Think I’m Starting to Lose It” being an incredible song title that is All Things Prescient circa Trump 2.0, I’m riveted by this line:
I got some heaven in my head
Chaos is just a quirk
Walking around West Seattle with my dog Jack and Pistolero turned up, I literally do have heaven in my head. I’m not shakin’ in my boots.
Yo soy un pistolero with my music and my words.
“So Bay” is the stranger, more caustic cousin to the brilliant “Los Angeles” off of Black’s first self-titled solo record (#38).
“Billy Radcliffe” might be the sneaky catchiest song that Frank Black has ever written, and it’s a strange tale of the first boy born in space. It’s also the ideal blend of Frank’s strange alt rock, alt country, and pop sensibilities. Just sublime.
And similarly, “Eighty Five Weeks” is blissful acoustic rock crafted by one of the best songwriters around. And again we get the ideal dusting of unearthly feelings, the spaceman descended to provide wisdom to the humans.
Before it’s too late, perhaps.
I’m not shakin’ in my boots while I’ve got Frank Black heaven in my head.
Some stats & info about Frank Black & Catholics – Pistolero
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Hard Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Punk Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3 out of 5 stars (!?)
- When was Pistolero released? 2004
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #29 out of 1,000
Frank Black & Catholics’ Pistolero on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Frank Black & Catholics’ Pistolero that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Yo soy un pistelero, I’m not shaking in my boots.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.