After only ever hearing Dancing Fool on th radio during in the 1970s, I discovered Zappa after watching his Does Humor Belong In Music video late one night, and for a few years couldn't get enough. Now I find quite a lot of his work hard work.
I don't know if I've grown more politically correct, or just grown up, but a lot seems plain nasty.
I think I found this at a boot fair for a couple of quid, picked it up, and haven't played it much. It's not hard to understand why, it really isn't very good.
No Not Now is tight, well played but uninteresting, with Bobby Martin's falsetto vocals irritating. Valley Girl, featuring daughter Moon on spoken vocals was the novelty hit single, and while an improvement on the previous song, the joke quickly wears thin. I Come From Nowhere is musically more complex, and the first time the album gets interesting, but it's still no Zappa classic.
The title track, a live recording of Drowning Witch, is the highpoint of the album, Zappa's atonal vocals held together by a talented live band, with extended guitar solos from both Zappa and Steve Vai. Envelopes sounds like one of Zappa's synclavier experiments, but it has a certain charm, while final track Teenage Prostitute is an over-theatrical horror, with those dreadful falsetto vocals again.
This really isn't Zappa's finest hour, it's mostly self-indulgent and over the top. I suspect Zappa was bored with pop music and a group by this time, and didn't feel like trying too hard.
2* - there are a couple of songs which make this listenable, but only just enough to get it two stars. Not recommended.
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