It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper

VINYL FORMAT. Recorded in part as the follow-up to Safe as Milk, Beefheart's debut from earlier that year, the world-shattering material on It Comes to You in a Plain Brown Wrapper was re-recorded, truncated, and issued -- without the Captain's approval -- as Strictly Personal in 1968. Mastered directly from the original analog tapes and featuring a wealth of unedited takes never before on vinyl, Sundazed's stunning gatefold double-LP release of this infamously enigmatic opus comes to you wrapped in a sharp outer sleeve bearing specially commissioned artwork by Frank Zappa/Straight Records illustrator Cal Schenkel replicating the album's planned '67 design (deliberately not shown here. It's a surprise!); inside are rare photos and fascinating, exhaustive liner notes by Magic Band drummer John 'Drumbo' French. So here, then, is Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's second album of gloriously disjointed avant-rock/blues and free-jazz skronk, presented just as nature -- and the Captain -- intended. Even after more than 40 years, this music is still hopelessly ahead of its time -- or, as one-time Magic Band member Ry Cooder once described it, 'right on time.'