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Frank Zappa - The Mothers of Invention: One Size Fits All CD (album) cover

THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Frank Zappa

 

RIO/Avant-Prog

4.31 | 1115 ratings

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fuxi
Prog Reviewer
4 stars This albums seems to attract nothing but positive reviews, and rightly so, as it's one of Zappa's most inspired efforts.

I would like to stress that ONE SIZE FITS ALL is definitely one of the great SYMPHONIC PROG masterpieces. Listeners who are only vaguely aware of Zappa's career (and who may be prejudiced against his avant-garde experiments, his twenty-minute guitar solos and his warped sense of humour) may not be aware of this. But any proghead who plays this album a few times will soon realise it's in the tradition of SELLING ENGLAND, CLOSE TO THE EDGE, OCTOPUS and A PASSION PLAY.

Most of the compositions on ONE SIZE are fairly complex but enormous fun. Chester Thompson is a virtuoso on the drums, Ruth Underwood's vibes are some of the liveliest in prog (together with Pierre Moerlen's, I guess), all the vocal arrangements are delightful, and George Duke plays some of the best synthesizer solos of the mid-1970s. In my opinion, Duke is right up there in the pantheon with Keith Emerson, Chick Corea and Patrick Moraz. What a shame he never recorded any proggy solo albums!

'Sofa' is one of those hymn-like tunes British prog bands (esp. Genesis, Jethro Tull and VDGG) used to favour, but this being Zappa, it's a hilarious parody, of course. And oh, all of Zappa's guitar solos are really first-rate!

fuxi | 4/5 |

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