Funny Valentine is the second studio album by avant-rock, experimental trio Massacre, recorded 17 years after the first. For this album guitarist Fred Frith and bass guitarist Bill Laswell were joined by English drummer Charles Hayward, who replaced original drummer Fred Maher.
| Funny Valentine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1998 | |||
| Recorded | January 1998 | |||
| Studio | Orange Music, West Orange, New Jersey | |||
| Genre | Experimental rock | |||
| Length | 61:17 | |||
| Label | Tzadik (United States) | |||
| Producer | Massacre | |||
| Massacre chronology | ||||
| ||||
Funny Valentine was recorded at Laswell's studio, Orange Music, in West Orange, New Jersey in January of 1998.[1]
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
In a review at AllMusic, Rick Anderson stated that Funny Valentine is a little "weak" at the beginning but improves as the album progresses.[2] He said some of the tracks display "the sense of humor that animated so much of Killing Time". Anderson opined that Funny Valentine is "great", but not "quite as great" as Massacre's first album. He felt that it needs "a little more discipline and a little less length, but not much more discipline and not too much less length".[2]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by Massacre
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Leaf Violence" | 4:43 |
| 2. | "Down to Five a Day" | 4:42 |
| 3. | "Lizard-skin Junk-mail" | 5:26 |
| 4. | "Ladder" | 11:30 |
| 5. | "South Orange Sunset" | 4:13 |
| 6. | "Six-cylinder Sinister" | 5:21 |
| 7. | "300 Days in the Vacant Lot" | 7:34 |
| 8. | "Say Hey Willie" | 2:14 |
| 9. | "Talk Radio" | 3:48 |
| 10. | "Well-dressed Ripping up Wood" | 4:22 |
| 11. | "Further Conversations With White Arc" | 6:24 |
Personnel
edit- Massacre
- Fred Frith – guitar
- Bill Laswell – bass guitars
- Charles Hayward – drums
Sound and artwork
edit- Robert Musso – engineer
- Allan Tucker – mastering
- Massacre – producer
- Kazunori Sugiyama – associate executive producer
- John Zorn – executive producer
- Ikue Mori – design
- Adolf Wölfli – artwork