STEVE VAI |
| Steve Vai was
going for weird and that is exactly what he's got here. Weird in the most complimentary way that can be imagined. Very much like Frank Zappa's kind of weirdness, you know, incredible musicianship, brilliant sounds and base humor in a high brow, kinda, way. It's not at all surprising as Vai was a protégé of the great Frank and could easily carry on the man's work were it not for the fact that he has this rep as a guitar god. I really shouldn't make too much of this record because I think it is intended to be a spacer of sorts 'till his next "real" album is ready but this is one of the coolest things to cross the desk in quite a while. The begging of this musical journey starts out with Steve telling select portions of the population to "Fuck Yourself" which is a pretty straightforward way of getting the ball rolling. Gotta love the Frank-ness(I am soooo sorry, please forgive me!) of this statement. That, and it is Steve singing which he doesn't seem to get to do nearly enough. Rolling Stone won't be reviewing this record is my guess. From the opening statement we move to "So Happy." This is Steve goofing around in the studio late at night and having an inspiration, or so my mind leads me to believe. It is basically a monologue of your typical dumb blonde, granola, chick stereotype with Vai's guitar mocking every word as she speaks them. The lyrics of "Bledsoe Bluvd" are some of the most touching that I have ever heard. I am not sure what they are touching but whatever it is would seem to like it. "Natural Born Boy" is an instrumental and has a lot of really hot guitar, imagine that! "Details At 10" is pretty morbid , disgusting and funny in a college dorm room sort of way. Oh hell, I am not going to go through every one of these tunes and tell you how witty they are or how incredible the guitar playing is. I won't go on and on about what a genius Steve Vai is because you know all of that already. What I am going to do is listen to "Fuck Yourself" again and try to figure out if I fit into any of the categories that he has lined out, and God are there a lot of 'em. Oh yeah, the CD cover is really cool too so to whomever did it, you are as whacked as Steve is, I mean that in a good way. Fuck, that didn't sound like a compliment but it really was, I swear! Awe shit; let's just listen to this again. Released by Epic Records. Review by David Lee. |