SHEIK YERBOUTI

Well I think good old Frankie needed to do such record. I mean some people say 'Zappa went commercial'. Of course if you compare it to some previous albums this seems to be not such experimental and definitely more pleasant for ear. I think the production of this release is excellent. Sound is strong and clear. Even those pop tunes sound excellent due to extremely good production. Flakes is probably my favorite Zappa song of his whole career. He's laughing at American society and I think Zappa was like American Ian Anderson putting his tongue in cheek comments to reality. Flakes includes many different styles. A bit of swing, parody of Bob Dylan's style, pop, hard rock. Well all in 7 minutes. You just can't miss it. Jewish Princess and Bobby Brown are parodistic pop songs. I think both excellent with fantastic lyrics. Both seem to be a bit sexist but of course it's just kind of ironical stuff. And really I'm telling you: PAY ATTENTION TO THE LYRICS! I have to also mention Wild Love (great piece where avant-grade music meets soul music, hard to describe but don't think it's something sensless like on some early releases. This sounds really great). I'm So Cute is also very interesting mix of wild punk and true avant-grade ideas. Rat Tomago is instrumental track where electric guitar bites ears madly so I have to mention this song as well. Of course maybe there are too many songs on this record but I'm not going to say "ok skip this or that". Just listen and enjoy good music. Probably finest Frank's release (along with Apostrophe).