ICE CREAM FOR CROW

I got this album for my birthday present and it took me a couple listens to fully absorb it. This album hasn't got the melodic richness of Shiny beast or an initial strange impact of Trout mask replica. But it is definately a little better than Strictly personal, the record where many odd decisions were made. When you have listened to this record a couple times you notice that it is probably more diverse than you first thought. The playing is excellent as usual for Beefheart. And from the Beefheart albums I have (Mentioned earlier in the review) this is stylistically closer to Trout mask replica than other albums. The riffs are very angular and playing is really curvy. Beefheart's songs despite the popular belief are very structured, tight and focused. Structures are just very complicated. You may not find hummable melodies at first and some of the music may seem annoying but when you get into it, you find lots of hidden beauty and suddenly music feels more coherent. That is the case on this album too.

The tittle track has the boogie rhytmn and many imaginative guitar lines played on it. It is probably one of the most catchiest songs on this album. The rhytmical patterns are just powerful and it is very entertaining in the wacky way. The ghost the host the most holy-o has somekind of subtle doomy atmosphere and background singing adds something special to this song. One of the better songs on this album. Semi-multicoloured caucasian has my favourite song tittle on the album and it is the best instrumental on the album. It sounds pretty fresh and and flows through the key changes very well. Hey garland I dig your tweed coat is a pretty funny song tittle also. The song is very aggressive and curvy. Evening bell doesn't quite grab me. While I appreciate the technical aspects of this acoustic guitar instrumental, it really isn't in the same league as Yes' Mood for the day on Fragile album. There is a lot of darkness on Cardboard cutout sundowm and this time it isn't so subtle anymore and it has Beefheart's angriest performance on the album.

At this point listener will notice that there isn't much variety on Beefheart's vocals on this album. It is mostly his speak singing. That is probably why I don't give this album five stars. The first half is really good and the second half works in varying degrees. The past sure is tense starts with a quite catchy and relaxing melody but suddenly bursts into quitar and harmonica madness. The song has the most powerful vocal performance on this album and it definately one of the highlights. Witch doctor life is the most melodic song on the album but it lacks something. It is ok. 81 poop hatch is totally unnecessary poem reading section. It is to long to be just monologue snippet and it isn't so skillfully read to be as impressive as poem sections on Trout mask replica. The thousandth and tenth day of the human totem pole is very interesting but saxophone lacks some of the drive. However Ink mathematics with its complex riffing is pretty good and Skeleton makes good ends the album with a mad note just like it should be.

In the nut shell this is a great end to one of the weirdest music careers. Don't buy it first but every Beefheart fan should buy it eventually.