us & Them

Ezra Furman can feel the future barrelling toward the now. Inside the world of her new album, All of Us Flames, the end of the patriarchal capitalist empire seems both imminent and inevitable, a turn down a path we can't see yet but can't avoid, either. The heat of a different world throbs just behind the skin of this one; all around us, openings to it flicker. They vanish almost as soon as they've appeared. But they keep appearing, as if daring us to hold them open, to widen them until they turn into a way.

Released in October 1984, Them or Us is Frank Zappa's last studio rock album (unless one counts Thing-Fish). It contains a little of everything for everyone, but most of all it has that cold and dry early-'80s feel that made this and other albums like The Man From Utopia and Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention sound dated pretty quickly. The record begins and ends with covers…

Frank Zappa - Them Or Us (1984) {2012 UMe Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (image)+CUE+LOG -> 472 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 163 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb
© 2012 UMe / ZFT | ZR 3870
Rock / Experimental Rock

Remastered by Doug Sax from the original 1984 digital master (this album was recorded digitally, so there was no analog master to use). Reverts to the original LP mix, which means it contains the original, shorter version of "Them or Us." A reader summarizes the changes: Notes on the 2012 reissue: this has been boosted, somewhat, and as a result is sliiightly more compressed than the original. I think it sounds fine. It lacks the ridiculously low dBs of the original Ryko (a problem that the EMI solved, to an extent), and also lacks the ugly digital edit that begins "Them Or Us." All in all, I'd say it's an upgrade. Released in October 1984, Them or Us is Frank Zappa's last studio rock album (unless one counts Thing-Fish). It contains a little of everything for everyone, but most of all it has that cold and dry early-'80s feel that made this and other albums like The Man From Utopia and Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention sound dated pretty quickly.