The Cult of Ray by Frank Black

The Cult of Ray, Frank Black's third solo album, came out on American Recordings in 1996, and this time the former Pixies frontman took the controls himself after Eric Drew Feldman had produced the first two. The title tips its hat to Ray Bradbury, which tells you where Black's head usually is: somewhere out past the stratosphere with the UFOs, the science-fiction pulp and the surf-rock daydreams. The voice that used to shriek and yowl in the Pixies has settled into something more measured and melodic, though it still knows how to bite.

The record signs off on a sober note, its closing track dedicated to the memory of Shazeb Andleeb, beaten to death in May 1995 at Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, a school Black had once attended. Frank Black and the Catholics came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.