SHEIK YERBOUTI

Sheik Yerbouti was released in 1979 as a double LP, this album features the classic 80s Zappa line-up or at least the same objective that line- up aimed at: this is focusing in only one thing and that is 'humor' and nothing else.

There's barely a track on here, judging by it's composition and musicianship, which can easily be distinguished as a Frank Zappa composition. Everything(almost) on here are just short, childish and clichéd tunes in which the lyrics are the only thing that standout, but not really as a good thing. While I don't mind Zappa making some mainstream or commercial tunes and much less writing humorous lyrics, because he has pulled-off some really good ones before, but what I do mind is that the commercial tunes in here don't feature any Zappa-trademark. Notable exceptions would be the classic City of Tiny Lites which actually rocks with great weird vocals from Adrian Belew, then the absurd, though well-done catchy Dancin' Fool, full of humorous backing vocalists is another classic commercial Zappa song.

As real standouts you really only got Yo' Mama, which presents an 8 minute out-of-this-world guitar solo to chill to; it's energetic, tranquil, powerful but mainly emotional and that's the fruit of it all, what really makes a guitar solo a good one, in my humble opinion. This is what Frank should have made for this album all-through, and what boggles me is that he really was capable of doing it but decided to create a 'just for fun for the musicians' record, and that's what this album really is, you can definitely hear all the musicians on board having a lot of fun making silly jokes, playing simple rock-esque stuff, and so on, but the overall result is annoying, repetitive, non-creative and way below Zappa's standards.

1 star: having only three good tracks on an 18 song album isn't enough for me. If you like satirical rock at its most pure form, check this out, you're surely get a lot out of this. However, I'm someone who prefers satire and humor to be mixed well with well-arranged compositions and interesting musicianship.

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