Frog Eyes

Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer doesn’t make his music easy to like, even though there’s much to like about it. From the manic, affected vocals to the sprawling, distorted arrangements, his songs bleed passion---so much so that sometimes his pop sensibilities just can’t contain it all. Almost half of the songs on Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph stretch to six minutes or more, and not all of them justify their length. But when Mercer’s epic prog-rock ambitions support his frenzied energy rather than merely complicating it, the results marvelously balance on the sharp edge between catchy and chaotic.