Frank Zappa: Apostrophe : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Having proven his stellar musicianship on a series of instrumental-based solo albums, Frank Zappa is now returning to the musical satire on which his formidable reputation was built. Apostrophe turns out to be so brilliantly successful, though, that it seems as though he's never left this field. Songs like "Stinkfoot" and "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast" again attest to Zappa's abilities at contorting song forms to serve his distorted purposes: They're a welcome reminder that comic lunacy is still alive and well. "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" spotlights Zappa's public-spiritedness, and just in case anyone might still have doubts about his guitar virtuosity, Zappa dispels such thoughts quite convincingly on the title cut — an outrageous jam with Jim Gordon's thundering drums and Jack Bruce's bumblebee bass. Truly a mother of an album.