1969'd!
I liked Zappa's early freaky acid flashback doowop albums with The Mothers of Invention pretty good, but never did hear this, his first post-mothers solo effort.
Nothing on the earlier Mothers albums prepared me for this, 50 minutes of (mostly) instrumental jazz-influenced jams. Really goddamn good instrumental jazz-influenced jams. Each track (except for maybe Little Umbellas, the shortest of the 6, which is a bit too unstructured) overflows with great hooks that you can't help but tap and bob to. The backing is complex and sinewy, with rollicking bass, jagged guitar texture, clenched-up beats, and on top are some incendiary guitar and horn solos. The whole album exudes talent, and exorcises the demons associated with most things dubbed "jams"; this is some legitimately listenable stuff, made by guys who either paid an un-jamly amount of attention to keeping the listener entertained, or just have good musicianship in their veins. I'm guessing a bit of both: this is clearly well-composed, but also really expertly executed, with plenty of raw, live energy. Throw some kickass, trippy production on top and this is the kind of undiscovered classic I rarely find anymore.
No sense really describing it all that much more. It's got hooks, perfectly balances repetition with change over time, and is bound to be a long-running favorite 4.5/5
Edit 9/2/11: Shoulda been a 5
You might like this if: If you liked The National Anthem (Radiohead) and want something tighter and woolier and heavier (see especially The Gumbo Variation). If you like guitar riffs, and have even a basic level of patience for length, experimentation and noise.
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