Try to imagine pseudo-jazz warbler
Michael Franks fronting a band consisting of
Steely Dan's
Donald Fagen on Fender Rhodes and assorted keyboards,
Sonic Youth's
Thurston Moore on guitar, and jazz-funk bassist supreme
Melvin Gibbs, and you'll have some idea what this record sounds like. Lust consists primarily of keyboardist
Peter Scherer and guitarist/
Franksophile
Arto Lindsay --
Fagen and Moore don't participate, but
Gibbs and the skronky guitarist
Marc Ribot do, to good effect. The music they make is smart, funky, and danceable, in a late-'80s kinda way. The noisy, non-tonal guitar work made famous by
Lindsay and Ribot is frequently placed so far back in the mix as to be almost completely absent, which is too bad, since it adds an edge that puts this music over the top. When it does come to the fore (as on the world pop-ish "Ponta de Lanca Africano Umbabarauma" and the
George Clinton-esque "Monster") and
Gibbs' energetic, bouncing funkiness is allowed free rein, an otherwise better-than-ordinary album becomes something special. ~ Chris Kelsey