I really feel like I should know more about Frankie Sparo. It's always startling when someone releases something this good, particularly when it's billed as their debut, and I've never heard of them before. I can't imagine that these strange, moving songs aren't the result of years of experience and experimentation. Sparo is a west coaster who split to Montréal a couple years ago. Apparently he has a following in that fair city, as well he should.

Tom Waits (the slower stuff) is a reasonable starting point to describe the music on My Red Scare -- but Sparo doesn't over-do things nearly as much as Waits does. The music here sounds more sincere, somehow, more direct and less produced, although technically the production is just fine. It's a compelling mix of acoustic and electronic, of other-wordly soundscapes and back porch blues. Holding it all together is Sparo's unpolished, expressive voice and odd, melancholy lyrics.

I keep wondering where Mr. Sparo works. Does a guy who makes music like this work in an alternative bookstore? Is he a shipping clerk for a women's clothing retailer? Does he man the counter at a juice bar? Maybe he sells real estate. For some reason I really want to know! I guess it's because these songs seem so sincere to me, and yet they're so oddly atmospheric that it's hard to imagine their creator walking around in the real world, talking on a cell phone and picking up a tofurkey at the deli on the way home from work. Maybe he drives a cab. That would work.

The first tune on My Red Scare, "Bastard Heart", gets right to the point: slow wobbly guitars resonate as Sparo's double-tracked, crackling voice exposes the details of the bastard heart. Electronic bloops and subtle crashing sounds conspire with simmering guitars to give "Diminish Me NYC" an ominous, anxious air. "Novak Again", with its theremin-inspired melodies, soft, noisy beats and Sparo's plaintive voice, is just plain spooky.

Lyrically, "The Loneliest Mademoiselle" is one of my favorites:

I hear you still bleed in taxis
And give all your lovers your favorite disease
Oh do you spend entire evenings in lobbies
The loneliest mademoiselle

"If You're Fancy Free" is a lovely guitar and voice number that might be uplifting if it were played about seventeen times faster. As it is, it's slow and pretty and smart. Another tune with terrific and strange lyrics is the last one on the CD, "The Night That We Stayed In". Anyone who can routinely crank out lines like

While you were a drowned police man
I romanced automotons

and

So what could you want
With no eyebrow debutantes
And vacuous boys in rooms filled with noise
Oh throw your hands in the air
And wave em like you just don't care
We did not mingle with the vapid mob, dear
The night that we stayed in

is okay by me. And don't forget, this is all being sung at about one BPM...It's really good.

As usual, Constellation has done a very fine job with the packaging on this release. I hope that they can give Mr. Sparo some tour support, as I'm betting that he's even better and weirder live than he is on CD. And if he does tour, he'd damn well better come to New York. I'll be first in line.