Patchy album: patchy review. Here goes.
What is it about FRANK ZAPPA? Everything I hear these days reminds me of FRANK ZAPPA. Maybe It’s the contrived, compositional approach that swerves between the Bonzos and Bowie. Maybe it’s the surge from hectoring tenor to crazed falsetto and the supreme self-confidence of the egomaniac in Track Two “Changing Outside” .
On this collection, the musical range is less measured than Zappa – all sorts of English-sounding things edge in. “No Minds Too Small” could be early (really early) PINK FLOYD. Epic, silly and wonderful all at the same time.
Idiosyncratic is a good word. Eccentric has its moments. I once knew a drummer called Steve. His Dad was called Edgar. And that’s how the EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND came to be. Grammar School Boys with a bit of devilment.
The WORLD TURNED EDGAR have gone off into that Noel Cowardly world where uncomfortable intelligence and creativity hide behind pastiche, mockery, and a refusal to be judged. If it’s not serious, we can’t dislike it can we? If the music is a bit corny and obvious, well we’ve missed the point, haven’t we? THE WORLD TURNED EDGAR are a kind of chuckling commentary on what everyone else is doing. And for moments it becomes more interesting that the things it might be commenting on.
|
The moments do pass, though, and the overall experience is awkward. Not enough laughs, not quite enough euphorias and, fatally, no epiphanies. My world isn’t turning Edgar just yet. The lack of unity makes listening to all 12 tracks very difficult. Track 8 is a pretty straight punk blues sort of stomp that suddenly goes into Monty Python and back out again. Track 11 could be a LEONARD COHEN piss take. But with something like a fondness for SMOG it flips away from clarity of purpose yet again. Track 12 stumbles out with mouth noises and mysticism. Or another piss take. Hard to tell by this stage.
THE WORLD TURNED EDGAR come from Liverpool.
|
