NAKED CITY

Describing this album is almost impossible. You really need to hear it to see just how intense and unpredictable the songs on this record are. Guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, bassist Fred Frith, drummer Joey Baron, and guest vocalist Yamatsuka Eye under the leadership of the legendary saxophonist John Zorn create a pleasant jazz record full of sudden bursts of grindcore. So as you can imagine the end result isn't exactly a pleasant jazz album. There are also a couple of other genres of music that suddenly pop-up during the songs which vary in length a lot. "Hammerhead" being the shortest with just eight seconds and "Sigon Pickup" the longest running just under five minuets. Zorn's affection for film music is also shown on this record. Odd and freaky versions of movie themes from "A Shot in the Dark," "I Want to Live," "Chinatown," and "James Bond" are all interesting and actually very amusing.

Many listeners might get scared off by my mentioning of grindcore in this review. Personally I dislike it but on this record it works incredibly well. The first time I heard this record I was surprised (And this is an understatement!). After a at least 25 listens I know what to expect, but somehow still get surprised every ten seconds of listening, The best thing is that you get the feeling that the band didn't take this record too seriously and had a lot of fun recording it so in the end Naked City turns out to be a very enjoyable record even though it is quite a demanding listen. I'm not exactly sure if this can be classified as rock but I'm giving this album five stars nonetheless because I believe it is a masterpiece of music in general. And in my opinion genres are unimportant, if music is good it's good.