Frank Zappa- Apostrophe (') (1974)

 I only own about three of Frank Zappa's six million or so albums and this is, I confess, the one I listen to the least and, seemingly, my least favourite. That means, on the one hand, that it's not overly famliar to me, and this listen felt elatively fresh. And I like the album. I just don't love it.

And I quite like Frank Zappa, really. On the one hand he's weird, musically intellectual, playing about with weird time structures all over the place. On the other hand, he manages to write catchy songs and very much have a pop sensibility- when he chooses to. Those last four words ae important, of course; Zappa was an arrogant git who was quite aware he was often the cleverest mn in the world, but somehow managed to be ironic enough to be sort-of likeable anyway. 

This album is fairly typical of his more popular fare, managing to be accessible and catchy but with songs which nevertheless are deceptively complex without being pretentious and go well over my head while somehow also being a kind of bubblegum pop. I like it, it just doesnt have his usual one or two showstopper tracks- no "Peaches en Regalia" or "Valley Girl". Ultimately, I think, what I'm trying to sa is that I ought to listen to some more Zappa and make some kind of futile attempt to get me head around it.