*** The Bevis Frond

VAVONA BURR

(Flydaddy)

At the Middle East a year or so ago, the Bevis Frond's Nick Saloman prefaced a viciously sad song, "Stars Burn Out," by imploring Pete Townshend to get back on the brandy and to the business of making great rock and roll. The broadside was, I thought, very Pete Townshend of him -- right down to the brutally unforgiving, wounded sentiment of the tune itself.

Those are the kind of perfect moments you live for when you listen to a Bevis Frond album. The material's almost always worthwhile -- even on the tracks where you begin to wonder whether maybe, just maybe, those four extra minutes of "Maggot Brain" jamming aren't entirely necessary. But then there are those flashes of perfection -- songs so eloquent, raw, and unerring that they make everything else feel like filler. Here, we're treated to a trio of moving wounded tracks: "You Just Don't Feel That Way About Me," "Leave a Light On," and "In Her Eyes." And Vavona Burr echoes the dozen-plus Bevis Frond discs that have come before it in at least three other ways: the production's a little flat; the vocal melodies sound so familiar; and it eclipses anything Townshend's done since White City.

-- Jonathan Perry