Album Review: Likewise by Frances Quinlan

Evidence such as the fact Hop Along was itself conceived as a solo project, originally under the name Hop Along, Queen Ansleis, plus Quinlan's regular solo performances over the years have been key components of this perception. However, it was her towering and peerless vocals across Hop Along's records to date that further enforced this view, one which is undoubtedly unfair on her bandmates. All of this is to say that her decision to put her actual name to a release raised questions as to how much differentiation would emerge, and if this most recent foray is warranted.

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The solo debut of one of the more distinctive voices in indie rock, Likewise is the creation of Hop Along's Frances Quinlan. Following her band's fourth full-length (2018's Bark Your Head Off, Dog) and on the same label (Saddle Creek), it was recorded with bandmate Joe Reinhart, who has also produced, engineered, and mixed for the group. That's where some similarities end, because, while Likewise still features the singer's peculiar, leaping vocal melodies, one of the album's biggest surprises is its sweeter, softer demeanor.

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'Likewise', the first solo album released under Frances Quinlan's own name, stresses the importance of shared communication. Delving into the multiple facets of love, its nine tracks glide through the discovery of familial and the revelations of romantic relationships, settling on the conclusion that insular attitudes are far from productive. It's fitting then that, away from the confines of Hop Along (her full band project), Frances has provided herself with the opportunity to reach more widely.

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Frances Quinlan has spent the past 10 years unleashing an indie-rock shout so ecstatic and alive that it seems to tear into the limits of singing whenever it appears. You will never hear someone holler with such grace and exactitude as Quinlan, in 2012, exploding the final moments of her band Hop Along's second album, Get Disowned, as if her life, and perhaps the lives of countless others, depended on it. Scratching at the reaches of her power on a syllabic level--"Me-te-or, MAKE me YOUNG"--her rave-up crests and falls like the chart of a haywire heart monitor, as if she is wishing on a star not for herself, but for all of us.

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For its strong humanist streak, ironically Hop Along leader Frances Quinlan's solo album, Likewise, opens with an array of teeth and bones. The Piltdown Man of the same named opening track may have been a fraud, but Quinlan speaks only in truths. And ones that are fully wrapped in flesh that hide only a pulsing heart. Whether sparked of her own memory or inspired by literary touchstones, Quinlan's observations are sharp but delivered sympathetically.

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The Lowdown: Though her bandmates in Hop Along make some of the most muscular noise in all of indie rock, lead singer Frances Quinlan has never struggled to overpower them all. Her howls, erratic vocal melodies, and flamboyantly specific lyrics long ago established Quinlan as Hop Along's obvious artistic director, so the notion of a solo album first seemed at least surprising and at most superfluous. (Listen: Frances Quinlan on This Must Be the Gig) But that album, Likewise, turns out to be scintillating: joyful, haunting, and often both at the same time.

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