Frankie Cosmos reframes the past with “Different Talking”
With Different Talking, Greta Kline—the creative force behind Frankie Cosmos—returns with a collection of 17 bite-sized tracks, each under three minutes, and each a miniature window into a world of memories, places, and reinterpreted feelings. Like carefully preserved pressed flowers, these songs capture moments in their purest form, refracted through Kline’s signature whimsical, bedroom-pop lens.
The album wastes no time with a grand opening: “Pressed Flower” launches straight into a bright, upbeat sound, pairing sweet melodies with Kline’s diaristic lines: “Sitting beside air on the train tonight to visit you.” There’s nothing revolutionary about the song structure—familiar chords, simple drum machine patterns—but what feels fresh is the polish and confidence.
“One of Each” slows the pace with a groovier mood, exploring indecision through a wonderfully relatable chorus — “I don’t know what to do.” It’s peppered with vivid observations: “Hold a tote bag filled with other tote bags” is the kind of offbeat lyric that makes Kline’s writing so charming.
Highlights include “Against the Grain,” with a steady bass and stream-of-consciousness lyrics like “I’m an orange leaf alone on the intersection, asking questions,” capped by a minute-long instrumental outro made for summer drives. “Porcelain” takes stranger turns: “I accidentally ate your AirPods” and “Get cured or get a diary” combine oddball humor with reflections on mental health, reminiscent of Wilco’s warmer, weirder moments.
“One! Gray! Hair!” leans into aging anxiety, ending with the line “The idea of growing up doesn’t even cross my mind.” Meanwhile, “Vanity” layers a repetitive string pattern over simple, darker lyrics — “I pray to God it’s not long” — keeping things quietly intense.
Later tracks keep the intimacy flowing. “Margareta” imagines the unreachable dream girl, “You’ll be waiting for confirmation forever,” while “High Five Handshake” slows things down with beautiful imagery: “Pull your hair back slow/Suck the smoke in fast though.” The sweetness continues on “Wonderland,” with its perfectly odd declaration, “Can’t see your face without throwing up.”
Finally, “Pothole” leaves us with the stunningly simple yet evocative line “It’s sunset here/What’s it for you?/How’d they get the pink light to come out like that?”—a perfect closing to an album all about preserving fleeting moments, reframing them, and sharing them without pretense.
Different Talking feels like a shoebox of handwritten notes and crumpled photographs. Its greatest strength is how Greta Kline continues to transform the smallest, strangest details of daily life into shimmering indie pop songs. The tracks may be short, and the formulas familiar, but the stories Frankie Cosmos tells —of longing, growth, confusion, and nostalgia—remain fresh and honest. In a world of overproduced, overwrought pop, there’s still something radical about making music this unpretentious, this open, and this true.