Warthur Captain Beefheart's swansong is a charming companion piece to Doc At the Radar Station, continuing that album's mixture of jagged instrumentals, unaccompanied spoken word poetry, and twisted songs updating Beefheart's distinctive avant-blues style for a new era. The opening title track is probably the best one on here, Beefheart and the Magic Band creating a piece which is at once addictively danceable and yet, at the same time, completely bizarre. At points the use of slide guitar seems to fit in interestingly with the approach of new wave groups such as Talking Heads and Devo, whose unusual, angular musical styles perhaps owe a little thing or two to Beefheart.

arcane-beautiful This being his last album, it's really sad to know that he will no longer be making music. Out of all his albums, besides Trout Mask Replica, this is one of his most popular releases. Now the album's title track, which was released as a single did boost its popularity slightly, especially due to an eye catching music video.

Now I won't lie, I do prefer Trout Mask Replica over this album. Not that this is a bad album, it's just the experiments on this album are more similar to each other, with some tracks even having similar vibes, whilst on Trout Mask, each song was a big suprise.

Musically the album is better than Trout Mask, with the music being structured more and more contemporary. There is a big Zappa esque feeling at times to the songs, mainly due to the use of instruments and even the playing ability of the musicians. But I did prefer the random outbursts on Trout Mask.

One of the negatives of this album is that Beefheart doesn't really sing as much as he did before. The albums vocals are mainly either spoken, done in a funny voice or mainly just poetic in nature, but to be honest, it does give the album a unique flair. It seems that the album is more based around lyrical ideas and rhythms rather than music. Now this is seen in the beat poem esque songs, and the song where it's just poetry with no music.

1. Ice Cream For Crow - Great instrumentation. Beefhearts delivery is amazing. Great lyrics with some interesting imagery being portrayed. 10/10

2. The Host, The Ghost, The Most Holy-O - A beat poem like moment. Great instrumental sections with some really interesting points. 7/10

3. Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian - Very Zappa esque. Great instrumetal work, with a jazzy backbone. 8/10

4. Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat - Another beat poem song, with dramatic instrumentation. Great arrangement. 8/10

5. Evening Bell - Pretty impressive bluesy guitar improvisation with some nice fingerpicking. 6/10

6. Cardboard Cutout Sundown - I love the gruffness in Beefheart's voice in this song. Nice instrumental section at the end. 6/10

7. The Past Is Sure Tense - I do love the jaunty guitar riff in this song. The vocals are quite funny at times, and the delivery is pretty cool too. Nice word play in the song too. I love how chaotic the song gets at the end. 9/10

8. Ink Mathematics - I love how odd and random the song is. Reminds me more of something from Trout Mask Replica. 10/10

9. The Witch Doctor Life - Love the use of xylophone (very reminscent of Zappa instrumentation). Love the way Beefheart use's both singing and narrative vocals in the song. 9/10

10. 81 Poop Hatch - Does anyone think that when Beefheart talks, he sounds a lot like his fellow avante garde musician Frank Zappa? Great poetic narration, with great use of words. I love how raw this recording sounds, where you can hear his voice crackling and even his breathing. 8/10

11. The Thousandth & Tenth Day Of The Human Totem - I love the very odd story told in the song, and how the musicians are perfectly on time with Beefheart's vocal rhythms. It's also good to heart Beefheart's crazy saxophone and clarinet playing is heard again. Nice instrumental outro, I love how raw it sounds.

12. Skeleton Makes Good - A very crazy ending song. Very sporadic in nature, but the nice guitar riff in the middle which continues to the end is really cool, and quite pretty. 8/10

CONCLUSION: I think overall, it is a great release, but to be honest, compared to Trout Mask Repilca, it feels that theirs something missing. The songs are great to listen to, but with Trout Mask, each song would do a certain thing to you, make you laugh, cry, ponder, huddle in fright. With this album, it was less of an emotional experience. It does take you on some vivid poetic journey's though. Song wise, the songs aren't as strong as the material on Trout Mask Replica, but I do admit that this album is more consistent. This being his last album, it really reflected on who Captain Beefheart was as a person...a crazy man with a moustache.

6.8/10

RIP CAPTAIN BEEFHEART (Don Van Vilet)