After Pixies parted ways in 1993, frontman Black Francis decided to embark on a solo career under the new moniker Frank Black. The following year, he released his debut solo album Teenager Of The Year, unveiling a new sound for the singer with its alt-pop sensibilities that became an instant classic. Three decades on, Black has already announced plans to mark its 30th-anniversary by reuniting with his original backing band for shows in London in Paris next year.

Now, Black is readying the release of a 30th-anniversary reissue with a North American tour to boot, where he will play the album in full each night.

The special vinyl tour edition of Teenager Of The Year has been remastered for the first time ever, drawing from its original analogue studio tapes. Sounding just as momentous as the day it was released, the limited edition reissue has been cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and will be released on double gold vinyl, including liner notes from Black himself and producer Eric Drew Feldman. The album will also be released on streaming platforms on 17th January via 4AD.

You can pre-order the limited edition reissue via Black’s website.

Black and his original, circa-1994 backing band - Feldman, guitarist Lyle Workman and drummer Nick Vincent - will tour North America before those 2025 London and Paris shows, where they will play Teenager Of The Year from start to finish every night.

Before the tour kicks off, Black will also play a few solo-acoustic shows in New England this December. The acoustic stint kicks off in Brattleboro, Vermont on 3 December and will then head to Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 5 December, before closing in Newport, Rhode Island on 7 December.

Speaking about the Teenager Of The Year anniversary, his tour dates and his personal selection of spooky songs just in time for Halloween, Frank Black said in the press release:

“Sometime in the early 80s, I'd have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year. Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough.

In 1993, I was doing “solo recording” sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles. We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn't stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR tapes in a studio vault for some time. Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared “Consummatum est”.

We tried to make it grand. 22 in 62. I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy.”

The Teenager Of The Year tour kicks off on 15th January at the Fillmore in San Francisco and includes 11 US and Canadian shows before going over to perform in Paris on Tuesday 4th February and the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 6th February. See below for the full list of dates:

January
15th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
16th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
18th - LA, CA - The Orpheum
19th - El Cajon, CA - The Magnolia
22nd - Denver, CO - The Paramount
24th - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
25th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
26th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
28th - Detroit, MI - St Andrews Hall
29th - Toronto, ON - History
31st - Boston, MA - House Of Blues

February
1st - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Street
4th - Paris, France - Le Trianon
6th - London, UK - The Palladium

For information and tickets, see here.