MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS: SLUGGO !

Mike Keneally's third album is a step down from his first two albums. The music is still remarkable, and often reminiscent of the great Frank Zappa, but what is missing is that feeling of inspired insanity that permeated Hat and Boil That Dust Speck. That doesn't make it a bad album. It is still a Mike Keneally album, and therefore full of astounding music.

The first part of the album starts out schizophrenically, alternating between inventive guitar driven rock, Potato (a very funny song), Why Am I Your Guy? and Frozen Beef (Come With Me, and more off-the-wall Zappa-like songs, the great I, Drum Running, Am Clapboard Bound and Looking For Nina. The album then settles into a smoother set of songs, the quirky but fun Tranquillado, a strangely compelling Chatfield Manor (sort of giving directions to Keneally's friend's house, all the way to the best song on the album, the gloriously RIO Egg Zooming.

Strangely enough, the worst song on the album (but not really terrible, just out of place) is the final track, the title piece, Sluggo, a honky tonk piano solo. If you think ELP's honky tonk didn't fit their albums, you ain't heard nothin' yet.

3.5 stars. I do prefer this slightly to "Boil That Dust Speck" from 3 years earlier. Still it's a long album like that one at over 73 minutes with 16 tracks, and a lot of hits and misses. He dedicates this record to Kevin Gilbert and John Coltrane. The music connects more to what Gilbert was doing, you know all that humour and commercial sounding music. Mike's got five different drummers involved along with Bryan Beller on bass. One of the drummers is Mike Mangini and it's interesting that Mangini, Beller and Keneally would all be on that first MULLMUZZLER album fronted by James LaBrie about three years after this one. That was a two star album in my world but not as bad as that FRAMESHIFT debut that LaBrie was involved with.

There are two tracks here that standout for me including Frozen Beef(Come With Me)" that has vocals and is a little heavier than the rest. The bass is great here. The other is the instrumental called "Egg Zooming" that has a Zappa vibe and is jazzy. Like "Boil That Dust Speck" this does not end well with those last four songs.

This is an entertaining release though as most of Mike's are, but also a mixed bag, as most of Mike's are.