THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Mid-75, Frank's second incarnation of the mother's Of Invention was now in full swing and One Size Fits all is probably one of the more serious mothers album of that period, since it gives a bigger than usual space to instrumental music and avoids the scatological humour of albums surrounding it. A bizarre spacey artwork graces the album's cover with a personal view of the zodiac system on the back cover.

Opening on the excellent Inca Roads is a jazz-rock piece that starts a bit brass-rock, before veering almost fusion and ending in a ridiculous and silly fashion, which cheapens the whole 8-mins+ of previous ingenuity. . . The short Can't Afford No Shoes is easily forgotten and segues into the short-instrumental Sofa N°1 a rather promising foray into dramatic sympho-jazzy prog. The 7-mins+ Po-Jama People is the classic track from OSFA (IMHO, anyway) and it deserves to be, as the track is a showcase for one of Frank's most brilliant guitar solo in studio, gliding over a funky jazz)-rock, with Chester Thompson's superb drumming in full swing.

The flipside opens with a fair and average Florentine Pogen and the following and thankfully-short Modified Dog is best forgotten. San Ber'dino starts like a typical Zappa humoristic bluesy piece, but develops an-almost-interesting instrumental mid-section. Ditto for the qirky Andy, a bizarre burst-ey piece that develops some interesting ad unusual moments, some rather impressive, but again the dumb over-powering vocals screw it up. Unfortunately the second Sofa piece is much less a success than its first instalments on the other side of the vinyl.

This, as usual, goes in every possible musical direction and is just too confusing to be considered as highly recommendable. The musicianship is superb as usual, but ones wishes that all of the tracks would be of Inca Roads or Po-Jama People, but it is far from the case, even if some tracks (Andy & Ber'dino) could be saved by editing the vocals. Despite some obvious flaws, it would miss my personal Top 10 Zappa albums, but not by much.