YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS

Another stab at catering to the novelty music crowd from Frank, on the surface You Are What You Is really contains very little of interest to fans of the complex progressive rock/jazz fusion material he made his name with, with many songs coming across as fairly well-observed but somewhat simplistic parodies of other genres - there's even a country parody in the form of Harder Than Your Husband.

It's taken a while for me to really appreciate how much stuff is going on here, with detours into more complex territory woven in between the more immediately hooky songs - it's just that you remember the hooky stuff better because of those hooks. And the sheer variety of genres Zappa touches on here is significant, as is the clear command he had of up-to-date production methods, the album serving as a demonstration of the potential of the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, his home studio which was completed after the recording of Joe's Garage.

The lyrics are often cited for being offensive and controversial, but actually to me they're on a bit of an upswing from the Sheik Yerbouti days, the broader range of subject matter being addressed being helpful. And if you don't like any particular song, don't worry, because each of them is fairly short so a different one with a completely different sound will be along in a minute.