Zappa's 80's rock albums

Frank Zappa's 80s albums are more or less under-appreciated by many Zappa fans, and rarely get notice from newbies or casual fans. Understandably, all of Frank's 80s albums are very controversial, either in lyrics or music, but, there are at least a few gems on all his albums. These albums comprise of Zappa's 80s rock studio albums, with a couple of live albums representing those lineups, before Zappa did away with any studio rock albums, and moved on to the Stage series, '88 band albums, classical and synclavier works. Of course, even Zappa studio albums had much (if not all) live performances with overdubs.

Which of these do you think is best?  I really like them all, some more than others. Them Or Us and Thing-Fish are fine once in a while, but aren't my favorites, the former has some weak material, and the production sounds a little flat a times and lacks punch; the former can only be listened to in private as it is so outlandish, not to mention the recycling of past music.

The Man From Utopia is stronger, but sometimes those meltdown tracks can bring the enjoyment down, but sometimes they're funny ("They need to reproduce") However, the instrumentals on this album are some of Frank's best, and they're very fun tunes.

I think the live albums Tinseltown Rebellion and Does Humor? are good, but I think there are better representations of those lineups on other albums, even though each contain original material previously unreleased, especially Let's Move To Cleveland, which is like the 80s answer to King Kong.

For me, it comes down to You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving..., and Meets The Mothers of Prevention.

I think I'll go with Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch. While FZMTMOP is cool with it's mixture of rock, synclavier and sound collage (which is probably the most progressive thing on all these albums) the rock tunes kinda feel like leftovers, though again, the rock instrumental Alien Orfice is great (and even better when played by the '88 band), and the synclavier pieces are excellent.

You Are What You Is is a classic Zappa album, and is one of the funniest albums he ever did. It's a generally fun album, but lacks a little bit in the complex compositional department. Ship Arriving... IMO has everything you want in a Zappa album. Great rock music, great guitar solos, funny lyrics, offensive lyrics, great vocals, epic Zappa compostions, zany instrumentals, etc.. Sure it has Valley Girl on it, but I got over the lyrics long ago, and honestly, the music underneath is like a metal/punk combo, which reminds me, this album is probably the closest Zappa ever got to playing heavy metal.

So which is your favorite?

This was actually the era I started with, for no reason other than these were the only album that were in print when I first started getting into Zappa.  All the now-classic seventies stuff could only be obtained by paying up to $30 for a used copy.  Back in the old days bla bla bla get on with it Steve

I vote for Ship Arriving Too Late.  What a solid little record.  Short, but thick.

It's also the first album I bought by him, because it had the current hit "Valley Girl" on it.  Go figure.


Edited by HolyMoly - March 26 2013 at 13:43

Ship but I've always thought that Utopia had some of his best instrumentals.

Sorry guys, I just realized I left out the Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar albums... They probably wouldn't have gotten much votes.

Tom Ozric wrote: Sip Arriving TooLate is a winner, hands down.  I love every bit of that album, even Moon's 'Valley Girl' banter, and the dopey vocals on 'I Come From Nowhere'.  Side 2 is some of Zappa's most complex arrangements IMO, though the man never composed 'simple' music.

..........man, I hate this keyboard...... Sip......................

I don't know many things of this period, except some instrumentals from Utopia that are excellent.