Man From Utopia Review

Ugh. Really? Do I really need to explain?

To sum this album up...

WHY FRANK? WHY?

Ok, compared to Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, this album has somethomomh hpomh for it. It's fun. It rocks. ...and, dare I say, there is a sense of telos to the album. Where Ship mostly felt like a weird joke, Utopia feels like Frank actually composed an album that went somewhere. To start off, nothing grabs me more than the opening of "Cocain Decisions" with it's crustal clear sound, Frank in a syruppy voice yells "Chapa Lie Now" or something of the like. Cocaine Decisions is in fact a great song! It rocks, Frank is funny, and musically it's pleasant. The same cannot be said of "SEX" which sounds good a first but descends into redundancy far too quickly. ...and yes, Frank does HAVE to make fat/skinny jokes. But.. it gets better. "Tink Walks Amok is a great jam, reminiscent of some of the more succesful improvs from Crimson's '74 tour. Good. Next... oh boy. "The Radio is Broken" sounds like Roy Estrada doing his schtick once again as he had on Ship. Roy Estrada seems to be only funny in performance, or at least when you can understand the "jokes" he's making. Here it's just incomprehensible noise.

The next number features some godd jamming, but it's just good, and almost a bit corny. Still, there is a sense of progression going on. Dangerous kitchen is really stupid and really great! It's a well written, catchy and ridiculous song. The imagery it spurs is nothing short of horrendously camp, but as an actual song, i'd have to say it's one of my own favorite Zappa numbers because of it's camp value. Of course, now here comes "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats". What the he...

Why Frank Why?

Surprisingly, this little dirtt was recorded in '78. nefore Sheik Yerbouti! How is this possible? I'll admit that it's actually a hilarioys song, especially if one wants to have a laugh with friends, but it's horrendously disgusting and stupid. Essentially it's Zappa singing like a dumber version of Roy Estrada's doo wop mockery about how two members of his band, one of which has been confirmed to be Tommy Mars, sniffing girls underwear. Yes, and Frank even goes to the effort to describe how his bandmates sniffed "the morsels attached", why, and what those morsels looked like. "The stuff in the bottom was like PUNCHING AN ECLAIR!" and "They were sniffing the FUDGE and the GLUE!" It's truly revolting. I kist hope it wasn't Belew who was the accomplice of Mars in this story, or else I'll never look at my Crimson collection the same again. Yes it's funny, but yes, this guy is 39 when he performed this. To think this was a live, yes LIVE improv is even more disturbing. I feel pity for those who shelled out their money to go see the Freak legend Frank Zappa, only to be subjected to this horror of scatology.

There is however a tremendous up to Utopia, the final track Moggio is beautiful. Ethereal and powerful, the piece is on of the better moments of Zappa's "serious" style. A motherly snort finishes off the album. Pverall, Utopia ffels like an album, but it's truly mired by averageness. Why listen to this when I have Apostrophe? Oh right, cause I wanna have a chuckle with songs like Party Hats and Danhderous Kitchen - the only truly memorable numbers.