FRANK ZAPPA — 200 Motels (review)

FRANK ZAPPA — 200 Motels album cover Album · 1971 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
1/5 ·
Warthur
An enormous muddle, just like the film it's a soundtrack for, the 200 Motels soundtrack combines some very challenging orchestral work with spoken word parts from the film and more conventional songs - many of which are pretty inferior stuff, as far as Zappa's back catalogue is concerned.

The orchestral experiments are interesting but difficult to get into, not least because Zappa's intent of parodying overblown Hollywood orchestral scores of the 1950s and 1960s lead him to produce music which... sounds an awful lot like overblown Hollywood orchestral scores of that era, except with some avant-garde bits added. Those interested in Zappa's orchestral compositions have a wealth of releases to choose from - The Yellow Shark and the related Everything Is Healing Nicely, Orchestral Favorites, Boulez Conducts Zappa, or even Lumpy Gravy - all of which are not only more interesting than the material presented here and showcase a better standard of performance, but are also more focused on the orchestral material so you don't get the Mystery Roach or Lonesome Cowboy Burt bursting in just as you're getting used to it.

As for the non-orchestral songs, well, they're decidedly a mixed bag. Lonesome Cowboy Burt is a straight up country parody with few of the experimental stylings which most fans look to Zappa to provide, Mystery Roach is OK but not much more than OK, and the other material just isn't especially memorable. And the package as a whole sprawls so much that listening to the whole thing becomes a chore. (It takes a lot to make Flo and Eddie's voices gratingly, eye-wateringly annoying, but their overuse in this album accomplishes it with gusto.)

In fact, this must be the most disappointing album Zappa released at this point in his career - at least Cruising With Ruben and the Jets was a competent and sincere tribute to doo-wop. Not so much "Strictly Genteel" as strictly for the Zappa collector who absolutely has to own everything the man produced, and there are many hardcore Zappa fans who will freely admit that this one is a clunker. There might be 200 Motels here but they're all one-star dives.
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