ALBUM REVIEW: The Count by Frog

Frog’s seventh album, The Count (September 19th), is a risk that works because it leans into its own eccentricity and without apology. Where February’s 1000 Variations on the Same Song hinted at the Bateman brothers’ fascination with repetition, this new record dives headlong into character-driven performance.

Daniel Bateman doesn’t just write songs, he inhabits the title role by reshaping the band’s alt-country and indie-rock instincts into something stranger and more theatrical by turning repetition into revelation.

The record’s idea of a mysterious piano man appearing out of nowhere to perform could have easily collapsed under its own weight. Instead, it sharpens Frog’s strengths and that strength is their knack for taking familiar forms and bending them until they feel precarious, unsteady, and unexpectedly moving.

Singles like “Bitten by My Love Var. XI” and “Spanish Armada Var. XV” show the band locking into grooves that are deceptively simple, then skewing them with timing, phrasing, or mood so they feel unstable but magnetic.

Part of the album’s shine lies in how Frog makes their variations feel alive rather than formulaic. What could read as a songwriting experiment instead feels like a world being built in real time. It’s one where each track refracts the same themes through a different lens. The band’s expanded lineup helps, grounding Daniel’s restless performance style with a steady pulse that lets the eccentricity land rather than spiral.

What makes The Count unique isn’t just the concept or the variations themselves, but the way Frog uses those tools to challenge what their own songs can be. It’s theatrical without slipping into parody and experimental without becoming indulgent. In short, it’s Frog at their most unpredictable and that unpredictability is exactly what makes the record worth returning to again and again.

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