Frog Eyes
Tears of the Valedictorian
Scratch Recordings/Absolutely Kosher, 2007
By John Hastings
If a medieval gleeman were to come across an electric guitar and a microphone, he just might have created something akin to Frog Eyes’ Tears of the Valedictorian. The newest offering from this Victoria, British Columbia, group comes across as a Lewis Carroll story set to music. A mind-bending and complicated smorgasbord of sound, the songs on this album are nearly incomprehensible at first, as keyboards, drums and wildly tinkering guitars overlap and spill above the vocals. Lead singer Carey Mercer’s voice is melodic and strained but sometimes almost inaudible. At the same time, you know it’s there and upon subsequent listens you begin to pick out words, then images, then characters that all combine to make Tears of the Valedictorian worth an extra couple of listens. Hyped for the addition of Spencer Krug (of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown fame), Frog Eyes’ newest disc isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but deserves a place on your shelf nonetheless.
Behind a wall of pounding drums, we hear about burning boats and monasteries shrouded in doubt, about drunken peddlers and red monks and generals singing to the sun. Mercer paints twisted pictures that seem to ebb and flow into each other as the album progresses. Several tracks stand out, including “Bushels,” which is arguably the highlight of the album, ending in a wild, fluttering crescendo and Mercer repeating “I was a singer and I sang in your home.” In the track “Evil Energy, the ill twin of…” and its subsequent sister track “Eagle Energy” we go from heavy drums and keyboards and an almost Modest Mouse style tune of frantic lyrics and wailing guitars, to a calmer pre-battle call to the sun where we hear that “The Tempest within us is no Tempest without us.” Fittingly, this river-ride of an album ends with the eerily nascent “My Boats They Go,” and we can imagine Mercer and company boarding their ship in search of future adventure.
While Tears of the Valedictorian will undoubtedly impress fans of the band, Frog Eyes are not necessarily for everyone. At times, the album seems almost too experimental and obscure, and some tracks fall flat, including “The Policy Merchant, the silver bay” which is a barely audible acoustic muttering. “Idle Songs” lacks the bite that you’d expect from an opening track and the lyrics are incomprehensible without the album jacket, though it is one of the more upbeat tunes on the disc.
All in all, Frog Eyes seem to have matured as a band, and if you dug them before you’ll dig them still. Tears of the Valedictorian is an album that grows with every listen, so don’t dismiss it if at first it’s not your cup of tea. Tracks like “Stockades” and “Caravan Breakers, they prey on the weak and the old” deserve that third, fourth and fifth listen, and by the sound of things, Frog Eyes probably deserve a bit of your time and money the next time they swing into town.
