The other day I ventured into Zia Records here in Vegas to scope out the bins and discovered that there was a Frank Zappa sale going on. Hmmm, I thought to myself, this may be an excellent chance to experiment. I already had nine Zappa recordings: Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka, Grand Wazoo, Over-nite Sensation, Apostrophe, Roxy And Elsewhere, One Size Fits All (my fave), Zoot Allures and Sheik Yerbouti. Gee, what do I go for next?

Well, I whittled down the choices to three: Just Another Band From L.A., Man From Utopia and Jazz From Hell. Each was on sale for $7.99, so I figured that I didn't have much to lose. I then started to whittle some more.

Seeing as I already had a bunch of his 1970's stuff, I nixed Just Another Band From L.A. That left two titles from the eighties. Of these two, Jazz From Hell always seems to get better reviews, so that's the one I chose. Now, after one listen I'm wondering if I made a mistake. Much of this sounds like aimless noodling to me. (Hear Frankie play with his new toy.) The only tracks that I really care for at all are G Spot Tornado and St. Etienne--with Night School coming in as a maybe. Perhaps if ALL of the songs had been done with a full band I would like it more. That synclavier is a neat gadget, but it can't replace a person or persons.

So, this brings me to my question. Of the three choices listed above, which would have you guys chosen?