Various Artists: Sounds Of North American Frogs

If people are willing to buy millions upon millions of Titanic soundtracks and Korn records and Master P films, why shouldn't they rush out and purchase Sounds Of North American Frogs, a 92-track, 54-minute collection of archived, narrated, painstakingly annotated, 40-year-old, digitally remastered frog sounds After all, the Southern Leopard Frog lets out a low, chirping gurgle that's scarier and more compelling than anything on a Gravity Kills record. The woozy snore of the Florida Gopher Frog sounds downright ambient, while the mating call of the American Toad, recorded at 10:45 a.m. on April 30, 1957, one-fourth mile south of Monett, Missouri, has a sterile, pulsating rhythm that outdoes any number of industrial records. Meanwhile, frog expert Charles M. Bogert supplies frequent, hilariously dry narration—"In the closely related Southern Toad, the trill is roughly twice as fast, with 68 to 78 pulsations per second, at a frequency of 2,150 cycles per second"—that lends a comfortable, folksy air to the proceedings. Bogert's commentary, scattered amid various chirps, croaks, squawks, and hums, helps provide Sounds Of North American Frogs with an oddly soothing rhythm. Not exactly essential listening, to be sure, but where else are you going to hear the recorded works of this many frogs