NADUR, GOZO — In what music critics are calling “the most significant cultural event to emerge from Gozo since that time someone played the accordion on the ferry,” a goat named Frank has released a twelve-track debut album that has already outsold every Maltese artist currently on the charts.

The album, titled “Baa-rok and Roll,” was recorded over three weekends in an open field in Nadur using a single microphone, a secondhand laptop, and what producer Tumas Xerri describes as “Frank’s extraordinary natural instrument."

"I first noticed Frank’s talent about six months ago,” explained Mr. Xerri, 43, a part-time musician and full-time accountant from Victoria. “I was walking past the field and I heard this… sound. At first I thought it was someone in distress. Then I realised it was a goat, and it was singing. Well, bleating. But bleating with real feeling, you know? With soul.”

The album features a range of genres, from the opening power ballad “Grass Is Always Greener (But I’ll Eat It Anyway)” to the up-tempo party track “Headbutt the Fence” and the emotional closer “Why Is That Man Staring at Me.” Track seven, “BAAAAAA (Extended Mix),” runs for eleven minutes and forty-three seconds and consists entirely of a single sustained bleat.

”Track seven is actually my favourite,” admitted music journalist Marija Camilleri. “There’s something raw and honest about it. It’s like Frank is saying everything we’re all feeling but can’t express. Also, I may have been listening to it too many times.”

Sales figures released by Malta’s only remaining record shop show that “Baa-rok and Roll” has sold 3,400 copies in its first week — a figure that dwarfs the previous record held by a human Maltese artist, whose debut album sold approximately 340 copies, most of them to family members.

Frank’s owner, farmer Pawlu Grech, 68, says he is “proud but confused” by the development. “He’s a good goat. Good temperament. Eats well. I didn’t know he could sing. I still don’t know if what he does counts as singing. But if people want to pay for it, mela, who am I to argue?”

There are already talks of a European tour, though logistics remain challenging. “Goats don’t travel well,” noted Mr. Xerri. “And we’d need to get him on the Gozo ferry, which is a trauma I wouldn’t wish on anyone, let alone an artist at the peak of his creative powers.”

Frank himself was unavailable for comment, as he was eating a cardboard box at the time of our visit. His management has promised a full press conference “when Frank is ready,” which they estimate will be “never, because he is a goat.”