Franky Lee - Cutting Edge Album Review

Franky Lee
Cutting Edge
Album Review

What started as a side-project for Millencolin's guitarist Mathias Färm, with ex-Peepshow musicians, to build on a decade's worth of song ideas, turned into something else entirely, once recorded.

For a band that takes its name from 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' on Dylan's John Wesley Harding, this is no singer-songwriter album. In fact, it is closer to Judas Priest, as full-throttle rock punk as it gets - imagine the Foo Fighters edgier work, or Jimmy Eat World on double espressos. That said, Cutting Edge isn't really erm... cutting edge. There isn't any invention, no tongue-in-cheek wit, no great songs, or, strangely for an album featuring two guitarists, any real guitar-based excitement. The whole CD sounds like a soundtrack to a mountain bike or skateboard DVD. So, better than Taking Back Sunday, certainly, but nothing new.

3/5

Mike Rea