FRANK ZAPPA — You Are What You Is (review)

FRANK ZAPPA — You Are What You Is album cover Album · 1981 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
Warthur
Another stab at catering to the novelty music crowd from Frank, You Are What You Is really contains very little of interest to fans of the complex progressive rock/jazz fusion material he made his name with, with most of the songs being fairly well-observed but somewhat simplistic parodies of other genres - there's even a country parody in the form of Harder Than Your Husband. The lyrics are often cited for being offensive and controversial, but to me they sound just like Frank was trying too hard to shock - and failing. (Hell, the sort of lyrics wheeled out by the Dead Kennedys or Devo in this era show more wit than the material on show here.) The songs are at least mercifully short, and Any Downers has a chunky riff behind it, but beyond that there's little to love here.

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