Okay this was weird. The only instance I ever came across where I had definite preconceptions about it going in, when I saw the dreaded words "free jazz" (why is he in prison anyway?) and assumed I'd hate it. Then when it began I was like oh hey this is all right, in fact as it went on it was more than all right; it was very nice.
Until it got to "Tuva Blues", where it all changed. The acapella opening annoyed me, the kid talking on it annoyed me, and her vocal histrionics later, well, I guess you know by now where I'm going. And it didn't get much better from then on. "Old Melodie" had some nice singing on it, but there was too much, I guess experimental/avant-garde stuff around the edges for me to enjoy it as perhaps I might have without, you know, the experimental/avant-garde stuff. Actually, no, I quite liked this one, as I listen back to it now, I think overall it's a nice song.
But "Lonely Soul" and "Boomerang" - of course, both the two longest tracks on the album - really **** the bed for me. The former started off well, lulled me into a false sense of security then went all weird, with hollow drum beats and a pretty strange vocal, reminding me of a kind of female Waits or Beefheart or Zappa or some damn thing. Hated this for the fact that it started off so well and then just dropped right into, for me, a musical cess pit. Kind of sounded, to me, as if she was sticking her tongue out or having some sort of fit during it. Got very glitchy along the way too.
Then we have "Boomerang", which nearly gets things back on track, but then there's some more weird vocal stuff that puts me off.
In general, an album I might listen to again, but only until the last two or three tracks. Therefore, though I enjoyed it more than I didn't (and more than I had expected to) I can only really give it a 7.5/10
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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