Jerk Music Critic: Zee, Identity

A side-project of Pink Floyd's Richard Wright after his unceremonious departure from the band, this odd collabouration between Wright (atypically not on lead vocals) and Fashion's Dave Harris dates badly to modern ears; its dismal reputation may be somewhat inflated by legend, but only somewhat. Wright's synthesizers are omnipresent, often cloying and even tiresome, there are too many ümläüts on the back, and Harris' vocal range on the album is as unimpressive as his lyrics. That doesn't mean there aren't good tracks: "Confusion" is a competent opener, "Private Person" has its moments, and I rather enjoyed "Strange Rhythm" because of its bizarrely fascinating samples, world music beat and Harris' Bowie-style vocals. On the other hand, there's "Voices," which is dopey and dissonant, "Cuts Like A Diamond" doesn't and closer "Seems We Were Dreaming" is limp, repetitive and almost lazy in its sparing arrangement. There's not enough Wright to please Floyd fans, there's not enough Fàshiön fans to care, and while interesting as a collector's curiosity it's no surprise this modern reexamination of this strange album shows it has not improved with time. The CD reissue adds one B-side in its 7" and 12" forms and the single cuts of "Confusion," which I suppose is better than the shoveled-on rough mixes many such reissues do. However, the liner notes are dense and interesting despite the typos and the less-than-pro layout, and Fairlight fans (because there's an awful lot of Fairlight on this album) will enjoy the 2-page musician's perspective on that iconic device. (Content: no concerns.)

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Express Yourself

The Jerk Music Critic is a collection of amateur music reviews I wrote largely non-professionally between the 1990s and today. Some of these reviews are contemporary and some are retrospective, and a few are rather dated, but all are intended to be free-standing and permanent records of my completely worthless musical opinion. They are presented in no particular order and "new" reviews that occur may actually be simply prior ones I've only now transcribed. Older reviews have been edited to hopefully remove inaccuracies later revealed, as well as add brief content advisories (see "Smash the PMRC") and, where reissues exist with different tracks, brief commentaries on these later additions (the actual star review was not altered).

If you're looking for a specific artist, or just interested to see what I really liked (or really didn't), "When I Break Down" indexes reviews by artist and by number of stars awarded (see "Star Chart" for an explanation).

As we move deeper into the Internet music age where the album format might seem hopelessly antiquated, there is still some artistic value in the LP to those artists who still take advantage of it, and some of these recordings can only be properly appreciated in that context. I hope you enjoy these reviews and recommendations, and don't take them too seriously. — Cameron Kaiser

Star Chart

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An instant classic. Substantially advances/d the state of the art, either technologically, stylistically, or (preferentially) both, and is outstanding music besides. Buy it.

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A excellent album. Nearly every song is a gem; nearly every piece is a winner. Falls short of 5 stars for want of that certain special something, but the difference is in impact, not in musical quality. Buy it.

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Solid. Mostly good songs with a few clinkers. Salvageable with a good playlist. Buy it cheap.

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Mixed. Some good songs stand out, but not enough to make it listenable as a whole. Buy the good songs on iTunes.

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Bad. One or two tracks of even decent quality. Buy the good songs cheap on iTunes.

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How did this get released?

Smash the PMRC

I don't advocate for censorship or unnuanced black and white stickers, but I do advocate for parents being able to raise kids in the way they see fit, which might include introducing albums of controversial yet artistic merit at a point in their child's life when they can better appreciate it. The content summaries are intended to be a very general guide, reflective of only my own personal sensibilities and mine alone, and do not substitute in any way for a parent actually sitting down and listening to the album themselves. If you excessively rely on my content advisories, then I'm the one raising your kid, and you really don't want that.