Search - Captain Beefheart :: Electricity

A not so great "Greatest Hits?"

Matthew Lewis (mattswad@bellsouth.n | Cliftondale, GA USA | 12/13/1998

(2 out of 5 stars)

""Electricity" is supposed to be a "best of" of the Captain's early works. It contains excerpts from "Safe As Milk," "Strictly Personal" and "Mirror Man." A muted down (lacking in high frequencies) sound marres this album. While the low hum throughout the CD version of "Safe As Milk" is gone, again this weighed-down sound is a big downer. The selections from "Strictly Personal" are questionable, as I don't own this album. But the instrumentaion and vocal quality is lacking greatly. (this should be expected though, as "Strictly Personal" was never released, but instead edited and stacked with phasing by the producer to may it sound period and complete) The track "Big Black Baby Shoes" is actually an earlier (and far insuperior) version of "Ice Rose" off the album "Bat Chain Puller." And "Dirty Blue Gene" (also the title of a completely different Beefheart song off of "Doc at the Radar Station") is a slighly different instrumental version of "Witch Doctor Life" from "Ice Cream For Crow." Both of these, though musically hideous, are good references to the thought process of the band. The packaging of this album is its best quality. Great for an import. With a nice review and picture of the band from a live show in the 60's. But what ever happened to personell listings??? Buy it if you're cheap, or like pretty pictures or as a completion to your collection. But you'd be better off buying the albums seperately."