Rolling Stone
Feb 1st 1991
By John Watson

Jack Frost scored three stars in this review

The ninth track on "Jack Frost" is titled "Number Eleven" and that seems a fitting way to begin discussing an album which breaks all the rules. Given the backgrounds of Jack Frost's creators - Steve Kilbey of the Church and Grant McLennan, previously of the Go-Betweens - their trenchant individualism should come as no surprise, but this album's appeal transcends bloodlines. It is a collection of fractured and fascinating vignettes.

The collaboration spreads itself across a broad musical territory. On tunes like "Every Hour God Sends" they dabble in high-tech metallic funk, while "Geneva 4am" sounds like a soundtrack to a Peter Greenaway movie. Generally though, the mood is more melancholic, with the haunting "Civil War Lament" and "trapeze Boy"'s striking whimsy improving with each successive listen.

The unifying thread in this tapestry is an angular approach to both subject matter and musical performance. Why write about man-meets-woman when you can sing about man-turns-into-bird ("Birdowner") ? Why use a guitar line when you can insert incidental studio chatter to add texture ("Geneva 4am") ? The problem with such volleys into the unknown is that they don't always hit their targets. "Number Eleven" and "Ramble" seem too willfully obscure, and sometimes the intricate machine-generated rhythms of programmer Pryce Surplice drain the material of its subtlety. But such is the downside of the risk taking which elsewhere reaps rewards.

Both Kilbey and McLennan have previously had clearly defined styles and occasionally here one of their inputs predominates. "Thought That I Was Over You" sounds like an outtake from '16 Lovers Lane' wile "Everything Takes Forever" would not seem out of place on one of Kilbey's solo records. Generally though, the hybrid has its own unique character and that, above all, is Jack Frost's greatest achievement. For once the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts and in this case that is no mean feat.

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