THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY

On the surface, it may seem that there is much for me to admire about this album. The musicianship is stellar, and many of the points made through the satire are ones I could agree with. Also, I have a high regard for Uncle Frank. Yet none of that means anything to me here. Truth of the matter is, I abhor this album.

For one, the criticisms of hippiedom are mere stereotypes. Certainly, many of those who got involved in the movement did it for all the wrong reasons ? simply as an excuse to get stoned and be lazy. At the same time, underlying the hippy movement was a genuine attempt to address the ills of modern society. Even FZ and the Mothers were in on this.

Secondly, I find the album disingenuous. Who would have bought this thing when it was first released? The very same people criticized within it. Frank may have thought himself superior, but in the process of elevating himself, and the band, he stoops the same level he claims to rise above. Besides, insulting your audience only indicates you are a jerk.

Thirdly, the album itself is of the same ilk as this which it purports to despise. Now, satire is a good thing, and one must know something about the subject being satirized (both the creator and the audience), but I do not think this is the case here. FZ and the Mothers are commenting about the San Francisco hippy scene only in terms of what they have seen and heard in the media, which never understood it. This is not an intelligent approach.

Fourth, I strongly dislike the music. Much of what is heard here is semi-random noise, the kind that the stoned-out foils of it would enjoy; the kind that a person has to be stoned-out to enjoy. And when it is not noise, which includes the spoken word passages, the actual songs are repetitive and overall uninteresting. They do the same thing over and over again in each of them. Is this to satirize the state of pop music? If that is the case, then the satire is no better than what it criticizes.

So, We're Only In It For the Money is a jumbled mess of an album, one that to me shows promise, but ultimately fails for it does not rise above what it attacks. I am deliberately giving this album the lowest rating possible, in part because of the gushing high ratings and reviews it has received, but also in part because I think it is pretentious in a juvenile manner. Maybe the title is not so much a criticism of others, but an admission of kind.