APOSTROPHE (')

Together with its companion Overnight Sensation, Apostrophe was one of the first Zappa albums to win me over. It's been called accessible and even commercial, but while I would go along with accessible, commercial is quite a stretch still. The album might have been successful but it sure wasn't made to sell big numbers. I really sounds like bunch of superb musicians having the best of times.

The music is strongly rooted in blues this time. Rather then the jazzy leanings of earlier albums, this album is filled with shredding solos on blues and soul standards. Of course, as with all Zappa, there's a big anecdotic element in this music. The songs often step out of the main groove or melodies to accentuate a certain narrative development. It's that exact theatrical aspect of Zappa that can make his music hard to get into. But the creative juices ran so free during this recording that there's plenty to enjoy for the novice.

For me this album stands as an example for music radiating with playing pleasure that is too engaging to ignore. As I mentioned before in previous Zappa reviews, I might start to love this music even more if I can ever overcome my disinterest in checking out lyric sheets. Ignoring the words while listening to Zappa, it's like watching a stand-up comedian show with earplugs in.