The new one from Frog, Count Bateman, dropped on Audio Antihero and Danny Bateman's Tape Wormmies label yesterday. Bateman is Frog and he makes the sort of music that owes as much to, say, early Beck, as it does to Neil Young. There's lots to enjoy here on Count Bateman, and for music that's so simple, it's sort of a pleasant surprise how affecting most of this is.
The shuffling "Got The World at Your Fangs" sounds like early Elliott Smith, while "You Know I'm Down" is part hippie missive, and part indie shuffle. Bateman rarely lets this descend into the sort of silliness it could descend to, and the heart he brings to this material elevates a lot of it greatly. "Borned King" is early Neil, while "It's Something I Do" owes a huge debt to the previously-mentioned Elliott Smith. Bateman understands the right line to walk here, and his tunes please even as they seem to be slipping away right in front of us. Danny Bateman reveals himself all throughout Count Bateman as one of the sharpest songwriters operating in the realms of lo-fi pop in 2019. This is really, really good stuff, folks.
Count Bateman is out now via Audio Antihero and Tape Wormmies.
More details on Frog via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Andrew Piccone]