APOSTROPHE (')

Frank Zappa

RIO/Avant-Prog

4.04 | 819 ratings

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LiquidEternity
Prog Reviewer

I understand that this might well be his most commercially popular release ever. He's written better, in my opinion, but this Apostrophe does stand well on its own.

The first four songs flow together to generate a continuous story, though that story begins with a discussion of yellow snow and the maturity level goes down from there. Musically speaking, the instruments are fascinating and high-quality, particularly on Father Oblivion. The first two tracks feature mostly spoken-word lyrics, which works in some ways but doesn't lend the songs to stand very well by themselves. All in all, this first-side suite plays as a fun diversion, but a lack of musical cohesion and a lack of individual musical merit makes this multi-track monster an odd one to review. The final track on the side, Cosmik Debris, is a high-energy song that actually does stand on its own.

Side two begins with Excentrifugal Forz, a relatively weaker song in terms of music. The lost pace quickly picks back up with the splendid title track, Apostrophe'. This long instrumental rocks with the best of Zappa's early jam tunes, built around a burning riff and splendid sound. Uncle Remus stands alone as the terribly rare serious-lyricked tune by this famous goofball, and musically it is rather strong as well. Stink-Foot drops any hint of maturity that Frank built up in the previous track, as he spends over six minutes discussing critically odorous feet. The music is mellow but strong, featuring some excellent clean guitar soloing. The album wraps with this song.

In all, the second side is quite stronger than the first, but the album is still critically injured by the mostly aimless first four tracks. A good album, but a spotty one.

LiquidEternity | 3/5 | 2008-9-30

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