Selten genug, dass das Booklet interessanter ist als die Musik, aber hier ist es so. Wir erfahren, dass Zappa aus Ärger über Sandys Ausstieg als "Uncle Meat" die Produktion ihrer Debutplatte Ian Underwood überließ, der den Job dann lustlos und schludrig ausführte. Das hört man dieser Musik leider deutlich an! Hier ist die Riesenchance verspielt worden, schon ein Jahr vor Joni Mitchell und Laura Nyro neue Maßstäbe für das Singer-Songwriter-Genre zu setzen, denn die Voraussetzungen sind da: Interessante, sperrige Songs, eine markante Stimme und vor allem eine Handevoll erstklassiger Musiker aus dem Jazzbereich, die diese Songs hätten veredeln können. Nun hört man sie nur auf drei Stücken, der Rest wird einzig mit Pianobegleitung abgespult, und das ist wirklich eine kriminelle Vergeudung. Zappa hat mehr als einmal bewiesen, was er als Produzent bewirken konnte, und diese Musik hätte es wirklich verdient gehabt. Wenn man sich Essra Mohawks spätere Platten anhört, wird das umso deutlicher - auch die sind zumeist schwach produziert und schöpfen die Möglichkeiten dieser Musikerin nicht annähernd aus.
If you overlook the lousy production, this is up there with Laura Nyro's 'New york tendaberry' for pure piano based emotion. When you hear about Frank Zappa's childish tantrums and his petty ruining of the recording its a wonder Essra didn't leave the music industry for good (the more i listen to some of Zappa's production techniques ie 'trout mask replica' no wonder he was loathed by some of his outside artists) After throwing a tantrum over Essra's suggestion Zappa put the duties over to Lan Underwood who virtually subortaged the whole project. It sounds at time as if the tape is wonky, there is dust on the tape and Essra is in another room. Yet if you can ignore that what shines through is a classic of confessional singer songwriter. There is some great melody and i feel if (as Zappa promised) the Mothers were allowed to back her the music would of taken on a life of its own. The four tracks with backing musicians are excellant (Essra wanted them on all the tracks) If only she would re-record the dam thing as she wanted. She met up with Ian Underwood and forgave him (as she did with Zappa) Good for her, she should of punched them in the mouth for ruining this potential masterpiece.
I bought this after listening to some of her excellent later work as Essra Mohawk. The production on this album seems quite poor, and seems to be aimed at making Sandy sound like a clone of Laura Nyro.
5つ星のうち4.0Essra shines through despite Frank's ill intent.
2014年11月17日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
Frank did his best to punish his young girlfriend for daring to express her opinion about the production, leaving Ian Underwood to starve and generally harass the project. Actually, Essra on piano singing probably the best batch of songs she would ever come up with (especially as they well reflect the energy of the late 60's) are all she really needed, if she was at least mic'd up for good clarity. Uh, not quite, though I'd say the production suffers more from a film of grime rather than outright sludge. Her performance is still very enjoyable.