Frankie Sunswept “Turning”

Frankie Sunswept “Turning” 2021. Romanus Records. Limited edition tricolor variant. His debut LP is a collection of thirteen tracks from his song-of-the-month project started in 2018 after going solo; Frankie (real name Frank Hoier) was in Crushed Out from 2010-2017. Besides his solo work, he also is in the “cosmic r&b” band The Sunwrays (one song on the LP, “This Bleeding Heart,” was recorded with The Sunwrays). Until now I was completely unacquainted with his work but I will literally procure anything that Romanus Records releases, so here we are! Overall it leans lightly psychedelic – more gentle frolicking in the sunny meadow Beatles-esque (with slide guitar) style of pop psychedelia than some of the heavier stuff out there.  Good examples of that are the tracks “Turning Toward Me,” “Light of the Heart” and “See Through.” He also goes California-sun psychedelic, a surfer just a little stoned, on the aptly titled “Surfer” and spacey cosmic on “The Moon & I.” One of my favorite songs is the garage-trippy “Some Days I Don’t Want to See the Sun.” The final track, “Fantasy,” unfortunately does not appear on this LP and is only available on the digital download version (I think). It’s a cover of a song by his father, John Hoier, who was in the 60′s band The Messengers and when he was with the band their song “That’s the Way a Woman Is” (written by Hoier, on Rare Earth/Motown Records) went to #62 on the US charts. Of interest probably only to me, John Hoier is originally from New Holstein, Wisconsin, a very small town not far from where I grew up in rural milk-n-cheese country in the northeastern part of the state.