THING-FISH

Ah, Thing-Fish, perhaps the most hated Zappa album. You probably know the story: this parody of a Broadway show was supposed to be performed on Broadway, but it didn't happen because of the financial problems. Eventually, it was performed live, though after Frank's death.

As much as I love the concept for this thing, ridiculous abstract humour, grotesque characters and even some intrumentals, this thing (fish) falls flat on its face. The shift of focus (from music to lyrics) is way too big for Thing- Fish to be a successful music record. It's not worth much without the visuals. Also, Ike Willis speaks on almost EVERY TRACK, which gets boring really fast. I like his character creation though, as well as Harry and Rhonda, performed by Terry and Dale Bizzio.

As for the music itself, this record is very, very bland. Most of the music in here is supposed to be just a background to the spoken word, so it's not really interesting. To make things even worse, some tracks in here actually come from the previous Zappa albums (with changed lyrics to match the plot). That's just lazy, shame on you Frank. I mean, it'd be tolerable on a live play, but definitely not on a separate music album! Also, the extensive usage of digital synthesizers must've been cutting-edge back in the early 80's, but this sound has aged really badly.

There are just a few mild highlights: "The Mammy Nuns" is a very catchy song with awesome background vocal harmonies. "Clowns on Velvet" is the only track in here that reminds me of Zappa's best stuff. Quirky rhythms and the use of percussion instruments is really nice. Too bad it's so short. "He's So Gay" is a hilarious song, though the studio version sounds kinda sloppy (check out the outstanding performance of this one on "Does Humor Belong in Music?" DVD). "Wistful Wit a Fist-Full" is a nice vocal-piano track. Also, some spoken word pieces are pretty funny on their own, such as "Harry-As-a-Boy" or "Briefcase Boogie".

What else there is to say? Thing-Fish just doesn't work as a musical album. 2 stars, no more. A live play DVD would be of much bigger value.

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