HAT.

Mike Keneally is one of the most underrated musicians of today. He's mostly known for his work with Frank Zappa as a "stunt guitarist" (which he became after Steve Vai). Not only is he a fantastic guitarist, his work on keyboards and vocals is very strong as well. If you listen to this album, it's very easy to see why many consider him to be a virtuoso. The way he blends technical playing with experimenting is amazing.

Hat is my favorite Keneally album so far (I also have Sluggo! and Dog). This is probably the "weirdest" of the three I have, but although weird it isn't really anything difficult to get into, especially for an experienced progger. His music is a mixture of very skillfully played guitar, Zappa inspired avant-garde music, and some pop influences as well. Although some songs are poppy, they are still technical enough to be easily appreciated by any fan of progressive music. Hat is 25 songs, all but the last are very short. I honestly don't think that any of these songs (besides the 3 less than a minute) are anything less than great.

I'd recommend this album to any fan of Frank Zappa or somebody into virtuoso guitar music but looking for something different. I actually prefer this album to a lot of what I've heard from Zappa so far (I mean that with no disrespect). This album is really a 4.5 and a great place to start with Keneally's works.

What a hilarious roller coaster ride! The whole album is a relentless mix of musically demanding compositions which a heavy dose of improvisation. The whole album is constructed like a radio show - it consists of many short tracks and a few longer ones, and they all contain short bits of musical narration, the kind of which only Mike Keneally produces - for example, right at the beginning of the album you hear him saying "thank you for buying hat." by means of carefully arranged multi-layered vocal arrangements. Simply hilarious!

When Zappa's career upbruptly halted, with the cancer that would eventually take him from us, Mike Keneally stepped to the forefront as one of the new purveyors of irreverent, unconventional, and sometimes downright funny music.

Of all of his releases, Hat is still his most Zappa-like. Keneally's grasp of Zappa's multi- layered time signatures is on full display here. Like Zappa, Keneally interweaves complex pieces with more conventional compositions (but in the conventionality, there is usually a twist).

The best prog pieces on this album are Your Quimby Dollars At Work, Performing Miracles, the Cow trilogy: The Day Of The Cow 1, Snowcow, The Day Of The Cow 2, and Lightnin' Roy (dedicated to Zappa). The funniest songs are Dhen Tin, Eno And The Actor, The Car Song, Here Is What I Dreamed, and the aforementioned Cow songs. Not to mention the little bits between some of the songs.

This album should be owned by any prog fan with a sense of humor. One of my top five favorites of the nineties.