Coming off what turned out to be the final dissolution of the
\nMothers Of Invention and a short tour with his old friend Captain
\nBeefheart, Frank Zappa did something that many people may not have
\nexpected – he released a dark-sounding, more serious album in 1976
\nwith
\nZoot Allures<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes the listener about this disc is the
\noverall sound. Zappa was known for crisp, clear production work,
\nand turned out to be a producer who was in demand. Yet
\nZoot Allures<\/i> has its emphasis on bass – not thumping bass
\nlike you hear from the asshole in the SUV next to you on the
\nfreeway, but an almost ominous feeling that is draped over the
\nmusic. I don’t know if this was intentional on Zappa’s part, but it
\nsets a mood.<\/p>\n
For the most part, Zappa remains serious over the course of this
\nalbum, though he and his band never abandon humor completely.
\nTracks like “Ms. Pinky” and the growing-in-popularity disco scene
\nput-down on “Disco Boy” are evidence enough of this. But, for once,
\nZappa chooses not to use humor as his trump card, and the move
\nworks surprisingly well.<\/p>\n
Listen to the sheer musicianship on instrumentals like “Zoot
\nAllures” and “Black Napkins” as a subtle – subtle? Yeah, like a
\nflying sledgehammer – reminder of just how good of a musician Zappa
\nwas, and how demanding he was of the same level of perfection from
\nhis backing band. Likewise, tracks like “The Torture Never Stops”
\nnever dips into the level of the absurd, but rather sounds like
\nZappa means business. My only criticism? The “screams of pain” from
\nthe women on this one sound like they’re approaching orgasm – which
\nmade this one
\nreal<\/i> hard to listen to at work.<\/p>\n
Even the lesser-known tracks such as “Find Her Finer,” “Friendly
\nLittle Finger” and “Wonderful Wino” turn out to be well worth the
\nlistener’s time, and the darker edge to the music gives them the
\nadded kick that they might otherwise have not received. I’m willing
\nto bet that, had a track like “Find Her Finer” been on a different
\ndisc with a more bright level of production, it wouldn’t have been
\nas noteworthy.<\/p>\n
Yet
\nZoot Allures<\/i> seems to have fallen to the wayside when it
\ncomes to people naming their favorite Zappa albums. Maybe it was
\nthe darker atmosphere of the disc that causes people to remember
\nthe brighter, funny discs like
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> – and while I love that disc as well, it’s a
\nshame that
\nZoot Allures<\/i> isn’t remembered with the same kind of passion.
\nIt may have been a more serious album in terms of content and
\nsound, but it’s well worth checking out.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38524","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38524"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38524"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}