Consumer Guide Album

Skeleton Crew: Learn to Talk [Rift, 1984]
Fred Frith and Tom Cora's fractured songforms on "Side Free" make their seditious point more sharply than I'd feared, but I'm glad I had the sense to play "Side Dirt" first--I do prefer songs to song forms. The post-Weill sound and critique will strike a minor chord with admirers of Henry Cow and the Art Bears, though especially given Frith's rough, sardonic vocals, the presentation's less formal--which I also prefer. B+