HAT.

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.