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| Adrian Belew - Op Zop Too Wah Band: Adrian Belew Tracks: - Of Bow And Drum - Word Play Drum Beat - Six String - Conversation Piece - All Her Love Is Mine - I Remember How To Forget - What Do You Know (Part I) - Op Zop Too Wah - A Plate Of Words - Time Waits - What Do You Know - Modern Man Hurricane Blues - In My Backyard - A Plate Of Guitar - Live In A Tree - Something To Do - Beautiful - High Wire Guitar - Sky Blue Red Bird Green House - The Ruin After The Rain - On Adrian Belew in a Nutshell In his first two albums Adrian Belew looks for his voice and shows his Mentors influence. There are some excellent songs and playing but Belew doesn't quite reach his potential. Desire Caught By The Tail, his third album demonstrates his more experimental side to diehard fans. This pretty much becomes the pattern for much of Belew's work with a swing to more pop based songs. Op Zop Too Wah is where he puts it all together, literally. Every phase of Adrian Belew's ideas Fall into place on this album. The guitar work and post beat poet kick the album off with Of Bow and Drum and Word Play Drum Beat. Besides being entertaining Pieces of music they are also interesting experiments in the boundries of rock music. The lyrical, pop side of Belew's sound is found on tracks like All Her Love Is Mine and Time Waits. This can make for sharp contrasts of which there are plenty in this set of 21 songs. There have been complaints about how disconcerting these contrasts are to which I disagree. As an album Op Zop Too Wah is cohesive, it's just not typical of his pop laden prior efforts nor his completely experimental material. Instead we get a pastiche of the elements that make up Adrian Belew's musical skills, really the first album in his catalog to do so. The key is taking the album for what it is and not what you would like it to be. It is refreshing to hear the Various elements of Belew's interests including production skills. The sequencing and spacing of songs are at times surprising yet tasteful. Production quality is excellent. For new listeners you can expect some pop songs in the acoustic and electric form only they will be a bit twisted from what you may be experienced to. There will be concise excursions into lightly experimental guitar and song structures. There will also be some heartfelt playing and singing to well intentioned lyrics with some occasional humor. Expect some rocking moments as well. The only negative are a couple of songs that seem underdeveloped or go on a bit long. Keep in mind most songs are well under four minutes so this critisim is to be considered within the scope of the album which is fast paced. Adrian Belew is that rare Artist that can play virtually any kind of music and fit in, he has played with such diverse artists as NiN to Paul Simon to his stints with David Bowie and Frank Zappa not to mention being co-guitarist/vocalist in King Crimson and his pop based band, The Bears. Op Zop Too Wah is a sampling of his interests as an Artist and should be listened to as such. There is a lot of great music on this album. Not to be missed. Guitarist Stalls On Op Zop Too Wah "Op Zop Too Wah" is the sound of Adrian Belew at his self-indulgent worst; it's the sound of a guitar without a mission and a man without restraint. One would think that there are indeed 21 songs on the album based upon the track listing. Let the buyer beware that much of it is filler no longer than one minute long! In fact, only 11 songs are of any duration and the others seem like throwaways from half-hearted attempts at half-baked ideas. Belew is still the consumate musician and he plays all of the instruments with a wonderful dexterity. With the usual exception of one or two preachy environmental tracks, Belew's songwriting has improved over his last release ("Here" from 1994) and the feel at times lives up to his best work, "Mr. Music Head". The title recording, "Op Zop Too Wah", is a wonderful instrumental that showcases Belew's guitar wizardry and bears repeated listenings. On vocal tracks, Belew seems to have regained his positive outlook on life; in the extended metaphor of "Six String", he describes his guitar as one would describe a lover. In still others, as on "Something To Do", "All Her Love Is Mine" and "I Remember How To Forget", Belew seems to have found a new maturity that suggests he is comfortable with himself as he enters middle age. Still, the album as a whole suffers from the intrusion of the above-mentioned vignettes and the pedantic environmental diatribes he can't seem to make an album without nowadays. Personal Favorites: the twisted wordplay and simmering rock of "Six String", the quasi-mystical Love ballad "All Her Love Is Mine" and the frenetic pace of "On". Representative Lyrics: "I look at the sky, I walk in the yard/ study little birds with binoculars/ so, Call me a nerd, it's something to do" ("Something To Do"); "I Love your back, I Love your head/ but I Love it best/ when I run/ my fingers down your neck" ("Six String") Long Live Rock-n-Roll !!! I think phrase "Op Zop Too Wah" is an modernized synonym for the "Rock-n-Roll":))Album is a cerebral work of sound, color and outlandish/creative lyrics. There are a lot of instrumental passages, drums and guitars, effects (landmarks of Belew's inovations). There are some Strong ideas, album sounds like a person changing radio stations, each song a different channel on the dial. So that's the way the listener is always cought of guard on what to expect. Op Zop is the retrospective jorney in Belew's career. Song "I Remember How To Forget" closer to Crimson's material, another song "Modern Man Hurricane Blues" is a step in a new direction, it was born from Ade's and Robert Fripp talkings about modernizing of the blues form. It's a song about modern man's city life ("ProzaKc Blues" is another Crimson blues in this case). Op Zop more muscular, more radical and it Brings Belew into another dimension, another masterpiece within his works. Adrian Belew world's #1 songwriter and guitar hero of our time... you know with whom... Op Zop Too Wah is a great listening experience in modern Rock-n-Roll history. Belew is a man with many talents and his artwork on album is cool too. Recomended for those who never forget a meaning what Rock-n-Roll is. 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