Album Review: Safe As Milk - Captain Beefheart

Album: Safe As Milk
Artist: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
Label: Buddah Records
Release Date: September 1967

Famous for releasing 'Trout Mask Replica', a weird and (some would say) wonderful album to follow 'Safe As Milk', Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band were lead by Don Van Vliet, a notoriously strict bandleader and composer who had a lot of different ideas on how music should sound to many of the popular artists in the 1960s. This first album contains a lot less of the trademark "weirdness" that can be found on later albums, but in my opinion is even more worthy of a listen.

'Sure Nuff 'N Yes I Do' begins the album with a distinct country and blues flavour but you also get the impression that Captain Beefheart is almost mocking the conventional pop voice of the day with his own take on it. It's fairly upbeat and fast paced, but is outdone on both fronts by the second track 'Zig Zag Wanderer' which takes more rock influence alongside the country sound of the guitars and percussion. With a prominent bassline and catchy chorus, the song is a highlight of the album.

'Call On Me' showcases Van Vliet's vocal style as the instruments take less of a leading role in the song. It seems to be a mix between a typical pop voice, and a country singer with elements of madness thrown in for good measure. 'Dropout Boogie' continues features an unconventional song structure based around a main verse with instrumental breaks of varying styles inbetween repetitions. The song's lyrics seem to tell the story of a college dropout as they go through life, and the various problems they face.

As one of the longest songs on the album "I'm Glad" slows the speed of the songs a little, influenced by the genre of soul it has brass and backing vocals and light guitar instead of the driving blues rock of the songs preceding it. The last song on the first side, 'Electricity' is an unconventional blues trip with distorted vocals and blues influence. According to Van Vliet, the band's record label at the time thought the song was too negative for release and critics noted that the song used "ghostly theremin in the most disconcerting way"

The beginning of the 2nd side shows some of Van Vliet's oddity, introducing a reference tone before starting 'Yellow Brick Road' which seems happy and whimsical on first listen, but features a shouted chorus and less optimistic lyrics than would be expected. 'Abba Zaba' is another strange song with nonsensical lyrics and country and blues influence. It's here that some early similarities with Frank Zappa's music can be heard (they later collaborated in 1969 on Zappa's album 'Hot Rats').

'Plastic Factory' seems like a song that could be taken straight out of classic blues history, with old timey lyrics and harmonica. It's an interesting arrangement and definitely still fits with the newer sounding, more psychadelic parts of the album despite its classic sound. 'Where There's Woman' begins fairly innocuously with slow guitars and lively bass but develops to into a more lively song fairly quickly. 'Grown So Ugly' features a clever time signature in its verse and a lively chorus and is one of the best songs on the second side of the album.

The final song 'Autumn's Child' is the longest and slowest song of the album, featuring distorted vocals, prominent theremin and a blues break in the middle. It's not as lively as most of the songs that are before it, but still ends the album well. Overall 'Safe As Milk' is a bluesy collection of songs influenced by many genres, with Van Vliet's on take on how things should be dominating their general impression and sound. For 1967 it's an amazingly different experience when the Beatles were only up to Sgt. Peppers.

Rating 4.25/5.00

Album Review: The Real Thing - Faith No More

Album: The Real Thing
Artist: Faith No More
Label: Slash Records
Release Date: 20th June 1989

The Real Thing was Faith No More's first album without their original vocalist Chuck Mosley. It instead featured Mike Patton who brought a wider range of styles and lyrics to the bands repertoire. Gaining more success than any of the band's previous efforts, the album features a mix of styles built around a core sound. While it's not perfect it shows a marked improvement in the band's progression and musical ideas.

The album's opener 'From Out Of Nowhere' is a fast paced almost pop-based song with heavier drums and guitars and Patton's vocals to distinguish it from that sort of music. With a catchy chorus and big sound overall, thanks to a string accompaniment it sets high expectations for the rest of the album. The following song 'Epic' changes genre to more of a funk-rap in its verse, akin to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers of the time, reverting back to a bigger sound similar to that of the first song in the chorus. With a long instrumental section both in the middle of the song and at the end, it's hard to place the album so far in a particular genre other than 'Alternative'.

'Falling to Pieces' is very much in the style of the first song; almost a pop style mixed with elements of heavier metal. Patton's unique voice is most noticeable in this song also. At just a little over 5 minutes, the song does end up being a little repetitive after a while and possibly could have done with being around 4 minutes like the two tracks preceding it. 'Surprise! You're Dead!' seems to be an excercise in just how diverse the band could make the album, with heavy metal overtones similar to Pantera and Metallica. It's the also the shortest song on the album at just 2 and a half minutes.

'Zombie Eaters' takes another u-turn in terms of sound, with acoustic guitar and strings accompanying hushed vocals which take a while to lead into the heavier section which is mainly palm muted guitar with a rap accompaniment. While it's a strange song, it's also a good example of how the band like to switch between sounds without much warning. 'The Real Thing' is the longest track on the album, in addition to being the title track. For all of its 8 minutes, it switches between the loud and quiet sections like the other songs of the album and doesn't really seem to warrant its length.

'Underwater Love' combines the pop and funk styling of previous songs, but doesn't really bring too much new to the album as a whole. There's some nice bits with backing vocals and prominent keyboard at the end of the song but it's not enough to impress to any large degree.  'The Morning After' seems to be quite clever musically with prominent bass and lots of different things going on between instruments. With possibly the best chorus since 'Falling to Pieces' it picks the album up a little.

'Woodpecker from Mars' is an instrumental departure from the monotony of the middle period in the album. It showcases the best of all the musicians (save for Patton) and is genuinely more interesting than most of the other offerings in excess of 5 minutes on the album. 'War Pigs' is a Black Sabbath cover which is very well executed and fits nicely into the bands overall style. At almost 8 minutes it's another long song but it manages its length much better than 'The Real Thing'.

The final track of the album 'Edge Of The World' has the final stylistic change to a slow, jazz feel. There's a piano in the background and apart from Patton's voice you wouldn't know it was even the same band. It's a strange ending to the album, all things considered. The first 3 songs are like a trip across pop influenced alternative metal, leading to a much heavier song after which the album loses focus for a while. Picking back up with 'Woodpecker From Mars' and 'War Pigs', it seems like it's fairly mixed overall.

Rating 3.50/5.00