CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & THE MAGIC BAND - Ice Cream for Crow (1982-2015) RM / SHM-CD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

With yet one final Magic Band lineup in place, featuring Richard Snyder on bass and Cliff Martinez on drums alongside returning vets Jeff Moris Tepper and Gary Lucas, Beefheart put the final touch on his recording career to date with Ice Cream for Crow. It's a last entertaining blast of wigginess from one of the few truly independent artists in late 20th century pop music, with humor, skill, and style all still intact (as even the song titles like "Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian" and "Cardboard Cutout Sundown" show). With the Magic Band turning out more choppy rhythms, unexpected guitar lines, and outré arrangements, Captain Beefheart lets everything run wild as always, with successful results. Sometimes he sounds less like the blues shouter of lore and more of a spoken word artist with an attitude, thus the stuttering flow of "The Host the Ghost the Most Holy." "Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat" is even more entertainingly outrageous, Beefheart's addictive if near impenetrable ramble about tobacco juice and straw hats and more backed by an insanely great arrangement. Magic Band members each get chances to shine one way or another -- "Evening Bell" in particular demonstrates why Lucas went on to later solo renown, a complex, suddenly shifting solo instrumental that sits somewhere between background music and head-scratching "how did he do that?" intrigue. by Ned Raggett  
Tracklist:
1 Ice Cream For Crow
2 The Host The Ghost The Most Holy-O
3 Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian
4 Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat
5 Evening Bell
6 Cardboard Cutout Sundown
7 The Past Sure Is Tense
8 Ink Mathematics
9 The Witch Doctor Life
10 "81" Poop Hatch
11 The Thousandth And Tenth Day Of The Human Totem Pole
12 Skeleton Makes Good
Credits:
Bass, Marimba, Viola – Richard Midnight Hatsize Snyder
Drums, Maracas [Shake Bouquet], Washboard [Glass Washboard], Drums [Metal Drums] – Cliff R. Martinez
Electric Piano [Rhodes], Bass [Synthsized] – Eric Drew Feldman
Slide Guitar [Glass Finger], Guitar [Slide], Guitar [National Steel Duolian] – Gary Lucas
Slide Guitar [Steel-appendage], Slide Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Jeff Moris Tepper
Vocals, Harmonica, Soprano Saxophone, Gong [Chinese], Horn, Producer – Don Van Vliet
Written-By – D. Van Vliet