Stewart Francke: Heartless World

Stewart Francke
Heartless World
(Blue Boundary)
[Rating: 3.5 stars]

Three decades ago, when FM rock ruled the airwaves, Stewart Francke would have had a shot at some success. He’s a talented enough guy who evokes immediate comparisons to Petty, Springsteen, Huey Lewis, and others who made their marks, and their millions, during the early days of MTV. On Heartless World, Francke pretty unabashedly wears the mark of the artists who influenced him, and the artists who influenced them, on his sleeve.

Francke is a Michiganian, a much-lauded musical hero in Detroit although most of the rest of the world hasn’t heard him. He’s an obvious lover of Motown soul and garage rock whose last album was recorded with the Funk Brothers, and who has opened for Bob Seger, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle and others. He really has a great feel for both musical forms and good intuition for blending the two on Heartless World — with players from the bands of Kid Rock, Rod Stewart, Etta James and others doing a great job, and guest star turns from people like old pal Mitch Ryder of Detroit Wheels fame. Unfortunately, there are no classic songs here, or at least anything that will stand the test of time as have the songs of others of this genre. Who’s to say that, in a different time, the youthful abandon of “Sam Cooke’s on the Radio” might not have made the song a summer classic rock staple? Or that, regardless of its overdone lyrical content about materialism and the human condition, the P-Funkiness of “You Want What You Don’t Got (And You Don’t Want What You Got),” couldn’t have had some staying power and been sampled these days, or redone hip-hop style? But not now.

Francke has his share of big-time supporters; The Boss himself makes an appearance on Heartless World’s opening track, the troop-supporting “Summer Soldier (Holler If Ya Hear Me),” an event which, in a different era, would have almost ensured a gold record and a spot on Saturday Night Live. But this is a different time, and the people who would have bought Francke’s records then are now grandparents with low sex drives and underwater mortgages. His heart is in every note he sings, but the bottom line is that it’s just a little late to expect mass success with this record. Francke will have to hope that his PR machine can get him some airplay on the independent rock stations of the world, and can create enough of a viral buzz that he’ll sell some downloads to oldsters who will appreciate what he does.