ON LAND AND IN THE SEA

3.5 stars. I spent a week with this one over five years ago and I must admit this band has been a tough nut to crack for yours truly. Vocal dominated albums are so not my thing. Especially when they are helium vocals with that punk attitude. I suppose I would rate this as my third favourite, but it's already gone as I've just kept two CARDIACS albums around that I do enjoy, and that's "A Little Man And A House And A Whole World Window" and "Sing To God" which I love to do.

And speaking of helium vocals I did like when Zappa would use them wrapped in humour, but not as your main singing through the whole album. And this is from a music fan who prefers instrumental albums so there's that. There are four pages of lyrics with this one! This is so not my thing, but hey I'm showing that half star for a reason. If your into high energy, circus-like music with plenty of humour then step right up. Top three tracks for me are "Mare's Nest", "Buds And Spawn" and that adventerous closer "The Everso Closely Guarded Line" which is a surprising 8 plus minutes.

So yes side two blows away side one in my opinion, but it's not enough to drag this to four star territory in my musical world.