YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS

Really nice double LP in the beggining of the 80´s. After Sheik and Joe´s, this one came like a quite nice surprise, with a Zappa looking much more like a band leader than the superb guitar player of the late 70´s. He´s is enjoying the band and creating some very inspiring and funny lyrics, with the style ranging from the country to the new age, and sometimes beein´ just Zappa (in 80% of the album). The arrangements are powerfull, lots of vocal parts absolutely in tune, what is a highlight here, great supporting band and, to tell the truth, the album brings a happy atmosphere troughout an hour of pure entertainment. It´s nice to hear to Zappa in 81 with the same freshness of the previous and classical line-ups and recordings. Mann, Ike, White, Sherwood, Vai, Mars... these guys brings a fantastic contribution to the entire project. Altough almost absent of virtuosism or never-ending solos (the ones present here are just fabulous, including Mann´s astonishing percussion and Zappa bizzarre chords), the album is a major contribution to Zappa´s 80´s definitive discography, what would reach a peak in Does Humour Belong in Music, including the DVD, that is very funny (altough there the band is not as good as in this line-up). So, if you like to know 80´s Zappa work, start with this one and try Ship Arriving... and The Man from Utopia, it´s enough music to realize that, even in this decade, this man could produce enough excellent rock music for a new entire generation.

A five star effort.