It might have only been six months since the release of Frog‘s latest full-length 1000 Variations on the Same Song, but it should come as no surprise to learn that the New York cult heroes are already preparing to release another. Because 1000 Variations served as what we labelled “a phylogenetic tree, where the same amphibian DNA passes through generation after generation, morphing through all manner of phenotypes yet retaining that Frog spirit through them all.” A signal of the potential scope of the Frog project. “Just where this organism will evolve next is anyone’s guess,” we continued, “but we have a thousand possibilities to get through yet.”
The next set of possibilities arrives with THE COUNT, a brand new full-length to be released via Audio Antihero which retains both the habit of numbering songs started on 1000 Variations and the creative freedom apparently gained from the practice. Because even for a band who have made a name for their idiosyncratic style, this might just be their most singular release yet. A concept album which sees lead Daniel Bateman assume the persona of the titular count, a figure straight out of some Warren Zevon song, full of shady history, personal mythology and perhaps even a supernatural edge. As Bateman introduces the character:
In late August of ’25, a peculiar man known only as THE COUNT began to appear at various locales throughout the New York metropolitan area, drinking heavily and raving about various offscreen women. He was tall, skinny, but muscular in a way that only comes from manual labor, and he wore J. Crew slacks with a wife-beater. If you were in his presence, even if only for a moment, you could feel the power that hid behind his dark eyes, eyes that would stare out at you like deep oceans of hazel and blue, beckoning. He was intensely aware of the presence of every woman within a 2-square-block radius and made a lasting impression on all of them that they didn’t completely understand. He was like a black hole that curved all of space, where the trajectory of every object that passed near him wavered and became blurry. He was the kind of man, in short, that you could stare at for ages, if only he wouldn’t stare back. But the Count always stared back.
Our first glimpse of The Count comes in the form of album opener ‘BITTEN BY MY LOVE VAR. XI’. Opening with organ that wouldn’t sound out of place supporting a small Sunday morning congregation, the song is reassurance that, despite the aforementioned evolutions, Frog are still very much Frog. Strange, unpredictable and oddly heartbreaking.