ZOOT ALLURES

Frank Zappa's 1976 album is one of the more perplexing items in his mammoth (and, 25-years after his death, still expanding) discography, presenting yet another composite of studio and live tracks, condensed from an aborted two-disc project and with a grab-bag of backup musicians enlisted to fill the various gaps. Even the cover portrait is misleading, showing the touring band assembled after the album was completed (so don't expect to hear Eddie Jobson anywhere on the record).

It must have been difficult for Zappa to maintain his habit of Conceptual Continuity with such a mix-and-match, scattershot production. But the end results are surprisingly coherent, evenly spread across a collection of (mostly) shorter songs: if not for the nearly 10-minute slow burn of "The Torture Never Stops", the album would have fallen well below the 30-minute margin.

The economical, entirely instrumental title track is an obvious highlight, despite the long, unresolved fade-out. According to the official Frank Zappa website, he considered it one of his three signature tunes...so what were the other two? Not "Disco Boy", closing the album on a sour note of now-dated social misanthropy. And certainly not "The Torture Never Stops", a concert favorite better suited to the stage, with plenty of room allowed for live instrumental vamping. In a studio environment it sounds a bit inhibited, and the eerie background wailing (by Zappa's wife, Gail) is more suggestive of the fake sex tape that led to Zappa's arrest in a 1965 Cucamonga vice-squad sting.

Here and elsewhere Zappa's lead vocals are curiously and very closely miked, delivered at just above a whisper. It was probably unintended, but the result is very effective alongside the atypically basic and often quite aggressive rock 'n' roll heard throughout the album. Clearly more effort was spent on the words than on the musical arrangements: one reason perhaps why the instrumental tracks stand out.

Expect to be entertained, not challenged. At his best, Frank Zappa will usually do both.