SHUT UP 'N PLAY YER GUITAR SOME MORE

Here we have the second in the the Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar trilogy. This time around we have a more humorous approach, although only slightly more, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on whether you wanted to hear something very serious or not. Personally I think it could have done with more humor, as I am a big fan of Zappa's sense of humor. I was hoping for something more interesting and exciting than the first part of the trilogy and unfortunately I feel it's hardly better than the first Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar and given I didn't think the first part of the trilogy wasn't that great, it really is a disappointment for me.

It starts off well enough, with the name of the first track, Variation on the Carlos Santana secret chord progression, already enough to show put a smile on my face, but other than the name it isn't a humorous song, but that isn't a bad thing here. There is some cool guitar playing here and the track seems to flow nicely for me. Gee I Like Your Pants is also pretty good, demonstrating some fretboard pick tapping here which sounds really cool in the context of the song. This is unfortunately the end of where the really good material is for me. I have so far not been able to sit through more than 2 minutes of Canarsie without feeling agitated and after a while bored too, although I admit I constantly listen to the first two seconds of the track just to hear that line Carnarsie. Where everyone looks the same. I'm not sure how funny that was intended to be, but it never fails to amuse me, sometimes just makes me crack up laughing. The rest of the song is seriously boring to me, and the guitar playing isn't that great sounding either to be honest, which is not something I want to say considering how much I respect Zappa's talent, but I'm not going to hide the truth of how I felt about it. There is nothing really that exciting about the rest of the album that I feel is worth mentioning, sure it's not bad, but if it doesn't excite me I can't see what I can really say about it other than it just seemed average and fairly uninspiring to my ears

Like the first part of the trilogy, I understand this albums place in history and for that I will give it better than the 2 I would have given it purely based on the musical value. and at least I'm constantly assured I can really like the first two songs.