Miss Butters is a rather interesting record from a number of perspectives. The record is a one-off from the band - this is particularly impressive, as very few artists debuted with concept albums (the one I can think of, off the top of my head, is Frank Zappa's Freak Out), and even fewer artists released concept albums as their sole statements. Musically speaking, it's clear that the band had some "big budget" ideas, but were not provided with the money necessary to realize them properly. The orchestral parts on the record sound rather thin and poorly recorded. Listen, for example, to the horns around that come in around the 23 second mark on "Birthday" (posted below) - clearly, the band had envisioned them as a grandiose fanfare to herald the birth of Miss Butters, the eponymous hero of the concept album - they sound underwhelming and flaccid. It seems that the band lacked the means to rent out entire orchestral sections, and instead had to rely on individual players to flesh out its vision. Nonetheless, that doesn't take away from the fact that it is a very focused vision. On the parts that they could flesh out properly, the band shined brightly. The harmonies are particularly impressive, suggesting that there was some significant arranging talent behind the Family Tree. The song itself is also very well written, with several twists and turns running seamlessly into one another.
"Birthday" is the first track on the record (which, like all concept albums, should be experienced as a whole to fully appreciate it), and is fair representative of the whole work.
No comments:
Post a Comment