You Must Be This Tall (Exowax Recordings, 2013)
Mike Keneally is one of the most talented musicians in the current progressive music scene. His roots are in the music of Frank Zappa and virtuosic guitar. You Must Be This Tall is Keneally’s 24th album and he demonstrates his admirable talent as an instrumentalist, cutting edge composer and songwriter.
Imagine Frank Zappa with less blues and more of a progressive rock edge, with elements of fusion, avant-garde and even Canterbury. Mike Keneally sings and plays guitars, keyboards, bass and percussion throughout the album, with outstanding overdubs. He’s joined on a handfulof pieces by the great drummer Marco Minnemann, Bryan Beller (Dethklok, The Aristocrats) on bass, Joe Travers (Zappa Plays Zappa, Duran Duran) on drums, and Rick Musallam (Ben Taylor, The Roots) on guitar
Some of the pieces follow the zany pattern of Frank Zappa, with bizarre tempo changes and counterpoints as well as unusual lyrics. Other times, Mike Keneally treats the listener to more traditional rock formats with excellent guitar solos and beautiful cinematic vignettes.
You Must Be This Tall is a finely crafted album of forward thinking progressive music by the dazzling Mike Keneally.