STRICTLY COMMERCIAL

"Strictly Commercial" is a compilation album by US experimental rock artist Frank Zappa. The album was released through Rykodisc in August 1995, 2 years after the death of Frank Zappa and it is the first posthumous best of Frank Zappa release out of many that would subsequently be released through Rykodisc.

The track selection concentrates on the most commercial and mainstream friendly tracks from Frank Zappa´s discography and there are none of his more experimental tracks featured on this compilation, which features material released between 1966 and 1988. There are several of classic Frank Zappa tracks featured on the album though and some of his most humourous as well like "Bobby Brown Goes Down". Oon the US version this particular track is not featured. It´s replaced by Tell Me You Love Me due to controversy over the explicit lyrics for "Bobby Brown Goes Down"). Other highlights include "Disco Boy", "Cosmik Debris", "Dirty Love", "Dancin´ Fool", "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Muffin man". The most "experimental/different" tracks here are the phenomenal instrumental jazz rock track "Peaches En Regalia" and "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace" which is ultimately a vehicle for a Frank Zappa guitar solo. The rest is more or less what you would expect from a best of compilation. There´re only a few tracks from the Mothers of Invention days in "Let's Make The Water Turn Black", "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama" and "Trouble Every Day", but that´s only natural as that part of Frank Zappa´s huge discography was never that commercially successful.

So if you´re interested in Frank Zappa´s most accessible tracks and don´t initially want to purchase his full discography to find out where those tracks come from this compilation is an easy and overall pretty good starting point. If you´re already a fan there´s nothing new for you here and you can safely pass this one by. The tracklist is really strong and even though the idea of best of collections is usually hard to appreciate "Strictly Commercial" serves it´s purpose well by making a good entry point for the uninitiated before delving into the more inaccessible parts of Frank Zappa´s discography. A 4 star (80%) rating is therefore deserved.