THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: OVER-NITE SENSATION

I'm sure everybody has one or more Zappa-aficionados amongst his friends and relations. I for one have always known a few that tried to get me into his music. Usually with varying degrees of success. Zappa always seemed to come at the wrong moment for me, mostly when I was into entirely different types of music. Also the goofy humour never seemed much of an alluring feature.

The Overnight Sensation album is the first in a series of 4 more accessible albums that finally did the trick for me. It is crammed with inspired fusion-flavoured rock, standout musicianship from all band members, catchy grooves, great guitar solos and very intricate arrangements.

Overnight Sensation is remarkable for finding a balance between the huge portion of weirdness in this music and an accessible and smooth elegance that has the potential for attracting many music fans. You couldn't call it commercial of course, it's still vintage Zappa and sounds like nothing else really, it's rooted in jazz-rock and avant-garde, but it flows into just anything that seems appropriate: funk, soul, blues and sex obviously. A bit similar maybe to the equally eclectic adventures of Gentle Giant.

I'm the type of person that never bothers to read the lyrics on a rock album, so obviously I will never get to comprehend Zappa's music to its full extent. But maybe one day I will, as it is very disconcerting that whenever we play a Zappa album in the house, my wife start rolling over the floor from laughter. Obviously I want to join her there! So I guess I'll really need to check out those lyrics one day. I'm sure that on that day, this will turn into a 5 star.