Despite his highly unorthodox style, the Captain always seems to have had a yearning for commercial success, and this is his most blatant attempt to achieve it, with the music very much in the mid-70s mainstream idiom. His vocals could never be completely bland, but on tracks like "Further than we've gone", they come pretty close. The does have its more enjoyable moments, "Same Old Blues" (unusually, a cover [JJ Cale]), "Captains Holiday" and the title track being the highlights.
From wikipedia:
Captain Beefheart's 9th LP, originally released in August 1974. Despite its uncharacteristically mainstream sound, the album failed to chart. Considered to be one of the Captain's weakest works, with fans labelling its line-up the 'Tragic Band'.
Having no musical training or instrumental experience, throughout his career Van Vliet had relied on a musical director within the band who could translate his often unorthodox ideas into a form that was musically playable. This role had been successively filled by Alex St. Clair, John French, and Bill Harkleroad on his previous albums. With the entire Magic Band having quit after the recording of his previous album, he no longer had such an intermediary. As a result the album is generally considered the nadir of Van Vliet's musical career. One of the musicians, Micheal Smotherman, said "Don was just as confused as he could be throughout the whole process... I would push his face up to the microphone and he would start singing. And when it was time to stop I would pull him back gently."
The album cover is a painting by Van Vliet's friend and cousin Victor Hayden, who featured on Trout Mask Replica with the nickname Beefheart bestowed upon him, The Mascara Snake.
Tracks
A1. Party of Special Things to Do <2:49>
A2. Same Old Blues <3:59>
A3. Observatory Crest <3:33>
A4. Pompadour Swamp <3:33>
A5. Captains Holiday <5:42>
B1. Rock'n'Roll's Evil Doll <3:20>
B2. Further Than We've Gone <5:31>
B3. Twist ah Luck <3:22>
B4. Bluejeans & Moonbeams <4:59>
Total time 36:48
Personnel
The musicians in this version of the Magic Band appear on no other Beefheart album. Previous members who had played on Unconditionally Guaranteed and earlier albums had left to form Mallard.
Captain Beefheart - vocals, harmonica
Dean Smith - guitar, bottleneck guitar
Ira Ingber - bass
Bob West - bass
Micheal Smotherman - keyboards, backing vocals
Mark Gibbons - keyboards
Gene Pello - drums
Jimmy Caravan - keyboard, star machine
Ty Grimes - percussion
Producer - Andy DiMartino
Equipment and lineage
Brand new LP, but with occasional scuffs on one channel: on B2, I used the left channel only for a couple of brief snippets.
Cleaned on 16.5 VPI RCM x3
Technics 1200 Turntable, KAB record clamp & fluid dampener
Ortofon Black 2M cartridge
Yamaha amplifier
E-MU 404
ClickRepair.exe for declicking - brass setting
Cool edit Pro (recording, general editing, manual declicking)
Recorded at 32-192 (A1-A4, B1) and 32-96 (the rest) > 32-96 to edit > 24/96 at end of editing.
Artwork included.