LUMPY GRAVY

Zappa's Thick as a Brick? Heh, well this is Frank Zappa's first solo outing. Seemingly forgotten throughout the legendary span of Mothers' material in the late '60's, it's amazing how much that Lumpy Gravy foreshadows in Zappa's career. Zappa's dissonant and highly melodic orchestration is very well represented here, and the production is genius and top-notch. Many memorable Zappa compositions start here surrounded by a concept of a colony living inside of a piano, talking about the world outside. Obviously metaphoric, this concept surrounds the entire album in the form of dialogue, there are characters here as well, most notably Louis the Turkey with the amazingly high laugh. The album flows well, some people might be thrown off by the dialogue, but it's part of Zappa, and the conceptual continuity and obscurity of his message. You cannot overlook how fluid this album flows together and how memorable these melodies and structures are thrown together. It's an extremely bold album, being one giant piece separated only be record side limitations, and extremely bold in being so obscure and inventive. By the way, this is not a rock album, it's a Modern Composition/Tape Music album. Zappa's classical composition later works are only a Son Of or Return of the Son of Lumpy Gravy, amazing album here. 9.4/10