The follow up to Safe as Milk was intended to be a double record, one half of which extended ‘live in the studio’ blues jams and the second half was supposed to be a more polished affair involving overdubs and other studio tools. In a way I’m kind of glad it was split this way because Mirror Man is a far more interesting album to listen to than Strictly Personal is. The live feel of the album makes the weirdness of the sound feel more organic and natural, where even on Safe as Milk it felt a little artificial.
The original album had four tracks on it: Tarotplane, 25th Century Quaker, Mirror Man and Kandy Korn, the last of which was eventually rerecorded for Strictly Personal. Tarotplane pieces together lines from old blues numbers and lays them over the repetitive riff. Will the lyrics are clearly not his own, the use of his voice of this track shows some excellent improvisational techniques, particularly in the second half. 25th Century Quaker uses a similar form, but some surreal lyrics and is my favourite Beefheart track. The second side is much of the same, with Mirror Man being one of the most popular tracks from the Captain’s discography.
The bonus tracks on the album are something of a distraction to me personally. I love the outtakes of Safe as Milk and Trust Us, in fact these are my favourite version of those two tracks, but Trust Us is the only track which really fits into the sound of the rest of the record. The rest probably should have gone onto a special edition of Strictly Personal.
The sound on this CD is better than the Safe as Milk disc reviewed a couple of weeks ago. There is still clipping on the drum sound, but everything else I’m pretty happy with and recommend overall.
25th Century Quaker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAHKI-QK7Lw
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