LICK MY DECALS OFF, BABY

On Trout Mask Replica, Beefheart exploded music into sharp, jagged fragments. On Lick My Decals Off Baby, he rebuilds it in his own image, refining the approach on Trout Mask Replica and returning somewhat to conventional musical structures and presentations - but always and absolutely on his own terms. The result is an album which might not quite be as 100% out-there as Trout Mask, but it's simultaneously more developed and nuanced on the one hand, and (very slightly) more accessible on the other.

Abandoning the "bush recording" production job - actually, this has better production values than any Beefheart album preceding it - the album teases out the hidden charms that the abrasive Trout Mask obscured somewhat, and comes up with an approach which would characterise the better post-Trout Mask Beefheart albums (basically all his subsequent albums with the exception of Unconditionally Guaranteed and Bluejeans and Moonbeams). And it's just *catchy* in a way that most of the Trout Mask material isn't - I've often caught myself humming Woe-Is-Uh-Me-Bop to myself in idle moments. Another Beefheart masterpiece.