PRESTON OUT OF THE ORDINARY BOYS.
He is now literally 'out of' the Ordinary Boys in the sense that he has reinvented himself as a solo 'artiste' and despite the moody 'n' pensive promotional photograph you see about 3cm above this piece of writing he has GONE VERY POP INDEED.
By 'very pop indeed' we mean…
1. He sounds like you think Frankmusik is supposed to sound, ie elegant 'n' stylised electronic pop with some guitars here and there but with the emphasis on proper instruments like synths and drum machines. Apparently it is the result of Preston pissing off to Philadelphia in the wake of the Ordinary Boys split (it was a difficult time for all of us) then spending six months throwing himself into a kind of personal and professional reinvention [insert standard waffle re solo artists 'finding themselves here] the result of which — from the five tracks we've heard — is very interesting and quite experimental but also REALLY VERY GOOD.
2. The first single is called 'Dressed To Kill' and it's a stylish, 125bpm, dancefloor-friendly pop single. It comes with a sample from the intro to THIS (this clearly remains the definitive version of the riff in question) although the sample's probably the least interesting thing about the song. The song's got a massive, swirling chorus — "you're dressed to kill and you know that you will, you're dancing in the dark with your hands around my heart" is a great slice of disco melodrama.
3. There are some other good lyrical bits and bobs, for example in 'Heart Of Gold', which throws up cute lines like "you've got a heart of gold — it's hard and cold" as well as amazingly overwrought moments like "if I could turn my tears to pearls and string them up on my regret you'd surely love me". There's another good moment on big singalong electroballad 'Coming Apart Again': "this speeding train of thought, it won't go
where I want it to, I'm hanging on a thread, I'm coming apart again". Perhaps you need to experience that in the context of a pop song rather than written down on a website.
Also, as you can see in the photograph above, Preston no longer looks like the tramp who came last in a fight over the last sausage roll in the bins round the back of Gregg's, so that's 'a bonus'.