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- Artist: Frank Zappa
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1981 09
- Total Time: 67:11
- Type: Lyrics are included with the album
- Genre: Rock
Review
You Are What You Is was another of Frank Zappa's periodic post-Over-Nite Sensation efforts that concentrated on tight songwriting supported by satirical lyrics. Originally a two-record set featuring 20 songs, You Are What You Is skewered a variety of targets, from teenagers, punk rock, disco, and country music to the media, yuppies, the beauty-and-fitness industry, upper-class vice, religious hypocrisy, suicide, and the military draft -- all the trappings of Reagan-era America. Occasionally, Zappa's satirical points seem ill-thought-out, if not unnecessarily malicious; "Jumbo Go Away" is perhaps the most offensive song in Zappa's huge canon of potentially offensive songs, a tale of a whining, VD-riddled groupie who is portrayed as deserving the punch in the face she gets from an irritated musician. Despite that misstep, though, You Are What You Is is quite ambitious in scope and in general one of Zappa's most accessible later-period efforts; it's a showcase for his songwriting skills and his often acute satirical perspective, with less of the smutty humor that some listeners find off-putting. ~ Steve Huey, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Teen-Age Wind | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:02) |
| Harder Than Your Husband | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (2:28) |
| Doreen | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (4:44) |
| Goblin Girl | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (4:07) |
| Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:34) |
| Society Pages | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (2:27) |
| I'm a Beautiful Guy | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (1:56) |
| Beauty Knows No Pain | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:02) |
| Charlie's Enormous Mouth | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:36) |
| Any Downers? | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (2:08) |
| Conehead | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (4:24) |
| You Are What You Is | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (4:23) |
| Mudd Club | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:11) |
| The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:10) |
| Dumb All Over | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (5:45) |
| Heavenly Bank Account | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:44) |
| Suicide Chump | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (2:49) |
| Jumbo Go Away | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:43) |
| If Only She Woulda | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:48) |
| Drafted Again | Frank Zappa | Frank Zappa | (3:07) |
