COMFORTABLY HOMELESS

"Kondome" is like YouTuber David DOCKERY 10-15 years before... Playing drums (and occasional other instruments) to the cadence of spoken (female) German. It sounds pretty natural, really. It is cool when people bring out the sing-songy nature of the human (speaking) voice. Seriously, if you've never heard "A Wild Hare" by Ron JARZOMBEK's SPASTIC INK (1997), read up on it first and (I would most recommend) look(ing) it up on YouTube (it "aurally recreates a scene from Bambi, even down to the dialogue, which is wordlessly mimicked by the guitar."--one upload of the track shows the actual scene as the music plays on top--Talk about next level!).

What I can say is that ZAPPA-isms continue strong on this release starting with the second track, "Papers". At times, this track gets very weird. Just compositional choices that you don't hear too often. Even in the wildest of Progressive Rock. Perhaps disorienting, but incredibly, undeniably fascinating.

And from "Papers" to the next, "Unlaw", the disparate styles somehow go together like bread and butter (see also the closer, as bonus track, "Overloaded", for this next vibe I'll describe). Hard to describe what is going on here. Maybe Psychedelic Soul? Some Funk elements? It rocks, and yet is so cool and collected. And at the same time, very well performed (a common theme in Minnemann's work). Excellent, really. Are we shocked? ["Look at all the t*tties"?! Lol! I mean, with that line, it can now (appropriately?) also be said this track is pretty sexy, admittedly haha.]

Moving along, ZAPPA-isms (T2, T4, T5, T7, T9, T14) stride naturally alongside Space Rock (most reminiscent to me of OZRIC TENTACLES; T4, T11, T13, T14); "Eclectic," super innovative Fusion (T5, T7, T9); R&B/Soul (T3, T10, T13); and the avant-garde (T1, T6, T10, T14).

Quirk that will appeal to ZAPPA fans, GENTLE GIANT fans and, I don't know, Jacob COLLIER fans alike (for Collier, a far better example is out there, I'm sure, but it's just not coming to me)! Some elements call to mind to me PINK FLOYD (see the pastoral "Arpeggio 2"; "Train Check" had the bleating of sheep, and, of course, Animals immediately sprung to mind).

All of this to say, it is absolutely remarkable how an album of this caliber, by an artist supposedly so widely beloved as Marco Minnemann, is only now, not only being reviewed (my pleasure, btw) but being rated at all! An album this good, being rated/reviewed for the first time on this site, and the site is nearly as old as this album! Just amazing to me. It's certainly not perfect, but boy, is it a treat! [Yet another Marco release that I wish I could justify a 5-star rating, just so people will pay attention to it.] Don't hesitate.

Personal Tracks of Note: T2, T3, T6, T8, T9, T13, T14