Released to accompany one of the best novels of all time, former vocalist 's is part concept album, part soundtrack, and wholly the most underrated project was ever involved in. The novel, also titled , follows the short career of , a rising star whose career is marked by one of the most ambitious media hypes of all time -- and ended by the greatest masterstroke of all, a bullet in the head on the eve of his breakthrough. The album, then, draws from 's own catalog of songs, a dozen punchy, electronics-driven vignettes with titles like and a single and the best-known track on the album, courtesy of its appearances on sundry compilation albums. Of course, all 12 are unmistakably , caught midway between the quirky transmutation of the late-'70s / freakshow, and the dense subversive soundscapes of his own next album, . The supporting cast, too, offers few surprises; , , and are all familiar , and their accompaniment molds itself seamlessly around 's characteristically vivacious lyrics. So seamlessly that 's overall obscurity is utterly baffling. Or maybe it isn't. It is fashionable, even among 's greatest admirers, to speak glowingly only of his first two solo sets and to overlook the remainder as mere works in progress -- a conspiracy aided by the unknown record labels, zero budgets, and failing health which dogged his final years. In fact, is at least as striking as -- more so, in fact, when one considers that neither of those albums led anybody anywhere. Play , however, and one can hear the entire course of unfolding months before many of its own sainted progenitors themselves got started. And it doesn't even matter whether was plundered or prescient. You'll never hear in the same light again. ~ Dave Thompson