Non-Classical Music Listening Thread!

[SimonNZ]

"Crooner: The CBS Years 1928-1934"

I'd been wanting a good set of early Bing, not some budget label knockoff with no notes, and this 3cd Columbia set ticks all boxes. What I hadn't expected (though should have) was just how saccharine and lackluster the material he was given at this time was.

[AnotherSpin]

I gave a listen to Cheaper Than Cheep, a live album from Frank Zappa's peak period. Good reminder of why he was once worth admiring — and why, at times, it's hard to sit through even thirty minutes of his music.

On the one hand, this is vintage Zappa: a flawless band, razor-sharp precision, lightning-fast shifts from jazz-rock to burlesque and back again — and, of course, the trademark humor that originally set him apart from both musical and social conventions.

But on the other hand, Cheaper Than Cheep lays bare the tiring underside of his act: the same old gags, the endless flirting with crudeness, the constant winking as if to say, "See how clever and funny I am?" There are no surprises. The endless excess, the relentless stream of "in-jokes," and the exhausting show of "I can do anything" end up sounding like a kind of nagging monologue. Theatricality tips into caricature. Zappa playing a parody of Zappa.

Cheaper Than Cheep is a document of an era when Zappa was still in full command of his abilities, but already stewing in his own formula. It's still worth hearing — but more as a historical artifact than as living music that can surprise or inspire.