(from the comments in the review of 'Flood', which is from January 1990, so just a little over a month cannot be included in this series - ed)

'They are the best (by a wide margin…) mutant pop of the late eighties-early nineties, at least until "Apollo 18." Unless you can find someone else capable of blending in the same Hollywood musical minipimer and polka, cartoon songs and college rock, art wave and world music, Van Dyke Parks and Andy Partridge, Zappa and the Cars, the 3-Mustaphas-3 and the Monochrome Set. From this album, "Minimum wage" - a perfect theme for a low-budget American TV series from the late sixties - and "Letterbox" - the Beatles and Todd Rundgren in kindergarten taking lessons from Jonathan Richman - make you think about how wonderfully ineffable that little three-letter palindrome is. Ah, 4.5 for "Flood," solely because the 5 is reserved for the eponymous first album and "Lincoln." There were ready-made tracks there like "Ana Ng" and "She's a Hotel Detective." But if you want to get to know them, starting from this is just fine' (self-citation.)

What can I say? That ten years later, I still damn well agree with that distant version of myself.
PS: among those tracks that rewrite the melting pot of pop, add pieces like this one posted and the insane Bontempi organ pastiche that collides Zappa-style with the theme of Perry Mason from 'Where Your Eyes Don't Go.' But citing just a few does a disservice to all the others.