Review Summary: Imagine if Cream decided to cover The Beatles. This album would be that at it's best.
The Frost are another band that my father has introduced me to, and while containing some similarities to Soup, the other mysterious band my dad has introduced me to, The Frost are very very different than Soup in the way they sound. Unlike Soup, it took me a while to get into and enjoy The Frost, where I had enjoyed Soup from the start. Another thing about it is, The Frost are a much better band than Soup, and contain more memorable tunes than Soup. Both bands are very similar in ways too, like their numerable Cream influences, and their slight pop intricacies when it comes to choruses. For the most part, however, Soup seems to sound more like a Cream rip-off band (a talented Cream rip-off at that), while The Frost seems to keep a much better track on their influences, and their debut album
Frost Music, proves that well.
On their debut at least, the band members sound very Cream in their style of playing. Don Hartman’s plays in a very Clapton inspired way, with many catchy and energetic leads, while drummer Bob Rigg sounds very much like a young Ginger Baker in his style of drumming, very simplistic due to the time signature, but can definitely play some excellent fills. Vocalist-Rhythm Guitarist Dick Wagner has a very Jack Bruce sounding vocal, as he can go very high and low easily, and can make a simple chorus sound very epic with strong, uplifting vocal performance. The Frost’s style of playing is very Cream in its style, but…
The songwriting is very Beatles inspired. Most of the songs seem to indulge in poppy choruses and sing-a-longs. The song that shows this the most is “Mystery Man”, which seems to surround itself around a very catchy and majestic-sounding chorus, while the lyrics surround themselves around an entertaining story about a man who didn’t like what he has used with his life, and thus hid himself in the shadows and now everyone calls him “the mystery man”. The band doesn’t try too hard to be the most complicated band around, and keep it simple in the way that The Beatles had for the most part, as most of the songs are in simple 4/4 time signatures. Remember how I said most of the band was Cream-inspired in their playing? Well the one member that isn’t is Bassist Gordy Garris. Gordy Garris is a bass angel, sent to make this band much more memorable. Gordy Garris’s bass playing mostly resembles Paul Mccartney’s old bass playing with The Beatles, extremely complex in comparison with most of the band’s writings at that point. So to conclude this part, while the band does play like Cream, their songwriting and excellent bassist are very Beatles-oriented.
With all this being said, this brings us to the band’s very weakest point; personality. Very rarely do they bring their own personality to the table; they just seem to write songs like the people who have influenced them. While they do a good job on the instrumentation and songwriting, they just don’t have the personality at times. The major exception, however, is the song “Little Susie Singer (Music To Chew Gum By)”, and while the music do resemble some of the second half of
Abbey Road, the lyrics definitely show some personality. They talk about a girl, who is on her way to have sex, but the lyrics seem to hide that message innocently up until the words “f
uck,f
uck,f
uck/f
uck,f
uck,f
uck”, and then you slap your face for thinking it was such an innocent song in the first place. While the band does show a small bit of personality throughout the album, most of the album lacks in that department.
The Frost’s
Frost Music is a definitely a solid album, musically, lyrically, and in just about every other way, but for the most part, the album seems to lack in places the personality that The Frost seems to have needed to become a huge band. The album is also unoriginal, but just about everything on the album makes up for that incredibly small foul-up. I recommend this album to a fan of most any type of music, as they would easily enjoy it. Yes, guitar lovers, there is something even for you on this album (a Clapton-esqe guitarist). The Frost was a very talented band, and if they spiced things up a bit more in their music, then they could have been the band to look out for in the 70s and 80s.
The Frost are:
- Dick Wager – Lead Singer, Rhythm Guitarist, Lead songwriter
- Don Hartman – Lead Guitarist
- Gordy Garris – Bass Guitar
- Bob Rigg – Drummer
This Message Edited On 10.04.08
