spacefrog's Full Review: BlueJeans & Moonbeams by Captain Beefheart
Don van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, is often cited as a major influence for artists such as PJ Harvey, The Fall, Public Image Limited or fIREHOSE, to name just a few in a long list.
At the same time, Captain Beefheart's discography (which covers his activity as a musician from the late sixties to the early eighties) contains basically two albums that are considered as essential, his very first album Safe As Milk and his late experimental work Trout Mask Replica. (As far as I'm concerned, I love the first one, but I can't stand the second one.) The rest of Beefheart's work is partly considered almost as good as the two beforementioned albums, partly as far below those works.
But anyway, what is so special about his music ? Captain Beefheart's music is rooted in Blues and Jazz elements, that are combined in a very special way. Some listeners have the impression that there is a lot of improvisation, but this is rarely true. And last but not least, there are Captain Beefhearts dark and raw vocals.
Well, it is about time to present Bluejeans & Moonbeams.
This 1974 release was recorded with some session musicians that are sometimes called Beefheart's "Tragic Band".
Pass your way if you are looking for something groundbreaking or even experimental. Bluejeans & Moonbeams is miles away from Trout Mask Replica and even much less daring than Safe As Milk. What we find instead, is just a collection of laid back blues rock tracks with just an ounce of weirdness, and even one J.J. Cale cover.
In fact, the first few titles sound rather good to the ear.
I actually enjoyed Party of special things to do with its groovy arrangement, its multiple guitars, and the voice and guitar only middle section. Pompadour Swamp is about as groovy, but relies more on its keyboard arrangements. Same Old Blues (the J.J. Cale cover) and Observatory Crest aren't bad either.
The problem with all those titles is that they all had to be faded out, since they weren't getting anywhere.
The second half of the album is worse, it sounds as if Captain Beefhart would have desperately tried to get some air play : Sentimental ballads (further than we've gone), Honky Tonk numbers (twist ah luck) and half-hearted songs (rock'n roll's evil doll).
Globally, this is definitely not one of Captain Beefheart's major works, although it does have some pleasant moments.
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