Album Review: Tears Of The Valedictorian by Frog Eyes

Now four albums in, Northwest Canada-based, Dante's Inferno outfitters Frog Eyes seem less like a band and more like a movement. While the quartet's intentions are suspect, one listen to Tears of the Valedictorian confirms the group's uncanny talent for creating manic, beautiful, and upsetting songs that seem to exist wholly for themselves. Trying to pull any meaning from Carey Mercer's pulpit-pounding rants is a course in futility ("When you bottom the boats/the weeds deign to sigh/but the admiral's chicken/the general's chicken/how painful they rise"), but his conviction is so intense that it both captivates and worries the listener, much like a cogent, holy spirit-possessed homeless person challenging passerby with Bible passages laced with profanity.

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Review Summary: Frog Eyes' 5th sounds like Wolf Parade at their best and most chaotic and is one of the best albums of '07 so far. The members of Frog Eyes seem to have an affinity for band names that feature animals; the group’s members have played major roles in both Swan Lake and Wolf Parade. Of course, since animal names are all the rage, this isn’t really a problem with the scarf-wearers of Earth.

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