ART ZOYD 3 [AKA: SYMPHONIE POUR LE JOUR OÙ BRÛLERONT LES CITÉS]

Take the chamber rock and apocalyptic tone of early Univers Zero, run it through the laundry to wash the goth out of it, and sprinkle it with some Mothers of Invention whimsy and you might get a close approximation to the Art Zoyd sound as expressed on this album. Whilst I fully concede that it's an extremely original piece of work and doubtless a major influence on the chamber rock genre, at the same time I just can't get into it - to my ears, it sounds like there's a bit too much weirdness and inaccessibility for the sake of it to my tastes. If you took out the hootings and the dissonance, you wouldn't have very much left, and the hootings and dissonance do nothing for me. Approach with caution: you may find, like me, that after repeated careful listenings the album just fails to connect with you.