Frank Zappa - Them Or Us
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Free Music Notes for Them Or Us
Free Music Review: Not the best
Hit: 4 Stars
This album isnt one of my favorite Zappa releases, not even close. But even still it is well worth checking out. Some good songs.Free Music Review: Good Zappa, though not great...
Hit: 3 Stars
This is a mixed album, like a lot of Zappa's 80's work. It's got some brilliant stuff alongside some highly questionable material. Most of the instrumentals are really good, but a lot of the lyrics are quite dated and borderline stupid.
The opener, The Closer You Are, is a doo wop ballad from the 1950's and is quite beautiful. Zappa loved the doo wop ballads, and here he covers an obscure one, but he does it well. It doesn't sound like it's tongue in cheek either. The next song, In France, has a good vocal by Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, but the lyrics are really juvenile. They almost sound like they were written by Republicans at the time of the Iraq War when French bashing was all in vogue. Ya Honza is a great song, with a killer rhythm guitar part by Zappa and strange, backward vocals that really enhance the song. Sharleena is good, though not great.
Sinister Footwear II is a great title, and it's one of Zappa's best instrumentals. Truck Driver Divorce is a stupid song, well, at least the first half of it. The first part is Zappa trashing (obviously) Truck Driver Divorce and country music in general. Then after singing about "delivering string beans to Utah" (a line Zappa used in No Not Now from the Ship Arriving album, and a better song), the song kicks into a totally unrelated jam (probably recorded at another venue) and is quite good. Personally, I didn't like Zappa trashing country music, as I like old country music very much and it has a lot of depth to it. Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but that's how I feel. Zappa actually wrote a good, funny country song called Harder than Your Husband on one of his best albums, You Are What You Is.
Stevie's Spanking is funny, with 2 killer solos by Steve Vai and Frank himself. Marque's Son's Chicken is a great instrumental, along with the title track, which sports a fantastic guitar workout by Frank. The other songs have their moments (Frogs with Dirty Little Lips, a strange ditty written by Frank and his son Ahmet, is one of the better later songs), but overall this is an uneven, inconsistent album where there are some outstanding tracks alternating with Zappa's lowbrow, juvenile humour (which was funny when I was 18, not so much now). If you're a Zappa fan, pick it up, otherwise avoid it.
Free Music Review: Contains some good stuff, despite the in-organic sound
Hit: 3 Stars
No brass, woodwinds, or acoustic strings. All electric instrumentation with lots of synthesizers. Even Chad Wackerman's acoustic drums come off sounding a bit like they're electronic. So, the sound is rather cold. That's my main beef with this album. Since Ed Mann is present using his myriad of percussive insturments (vibes, glockenspiel, bell-tree, etc.), the sound IS better, IMO, than that of the 1984 touring band as heard on Does Humor Belong in Music.The guitars (FZ, Vai, and Dweezil) are fast and furious, but the style is very 80's...not as interesting to me as 70's FZ guitar, (e.g., I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth, from ZINY). But still good, nonetheless - see my comments on the solos.
There are no "top-ten" FZ songs here, but some of them are decent, including Sinister Footwear, Baby Take Your Teeth Out (that jazzy groove in the middle is too cool), and even Ya Honza (well, that depends on my mood).
Two good points are:
1. Decent vocal arrangements. FZ did a good job with vocals in the 1984 time period...Thing-Fish is another good example of Zappa composing well with the human voice.
2. Good FZ guitar solos. Actually, the solos on this album required a lot more patient listening before I began to appreciate them. Case in point, Truck Driver Divorce. The very effect-laden guitar solo (a la Drowning Witch) seems to wander aimlessly if your attention is not all there. Now I greatly enjoy the landscape that solo creates.
There are many other Zappa CDs to get before you get Them or Us. Although I have many Zappa CDs, I do reach for this one when I yearn for that heavy metal side of FZ.
Free Music Review: Eh. Not all that much here.
Hit: 3 Stars
I'm sort of in disagreement with the other reviewers. To me I really don't find a whole lot of interesting tracks on this CD. The Closer You Are, yeah we've heard Zappa doo wop before, nothing special. In France: Funny little jam about France. Ya Hozna: Horrible. Six minutes of the same guitar riff with backwards voices dubbed overtop. Sharleena (reggae version): I like the rockin Flo&Eddie version from Chunga's Revenge better. Sinister Footwear II: good stuff, I have nothing but good things to say about this rock-band interpretation of an FZ classical piece. Truck Driver Divorce: a short little ditty with a guitar solo of completely different feel tacked on. I don't understand why the separate guitar solos are added to the songs, and not having FZ just solo out of the song (ex. Po-Jama People from OSFA). Stevies Sapnking: like In France, a funny song, but not all that interesting musically. Baby Take Your Teeth Out: A short little ditty, but the music is really interesting. Marqueson's Chicken: The somposed parts are really cool, but agian, a separate FZ guitar solo was tacked on without any smooth transition. Planet of My Dream: (see Baby Take Your Teeth Out). Be in My Video: Nice vocal harmonisiations of a funny song. Them or Us: a FZ guitar solo by itself. Frogs w/ Dirtly Little Lips: a funky side of FZ, pretty interesting. Whipping Post: Ugh. Don't expect the blues vocals of Gregg Almann here. And once again, a tacked on guitar solo, which just interrupts the rest of the song. This CD is good if you own a lot of Zappa already, but it's not all that great of a CD in my opinion.Free Music Review: Doesn't really rock
Hit: 3 Stars
This album looks appetizing at a first look but may leave you disappointed. But I'll admit that some of the songs are actually really good!* Sinister Footwear (Great performance of a beautiful instrumental that has since then become a Zappa classic)
* Truck Driver Divorce (Funny play with time signatures, but FZ's lead vocals are far too loud in the mix. The solo part is kind of psychedelic, almost hysteric, but I like it)
But there are several tunes that aren't very good at all. What ever happened to the fury that is present on the Sheik Yerbouti album for instance? I wish that drummer Wackerman would give the drums a wild bash. He plays perfect but lacks the rock energy here. This is probably one of FZ's better albums of the mid 80's. Still only 3 stars out of 5. That says a lot about that era.