AMG REVIEW: Although it shares both a title and the first five songs on side one ("Cool Daddio" through "Zebra Standards 29") with R. Stevie Moore's second LP, released later in 1978, Delicate Tension/Moore Stuff is its own beast. Recorded during the summer of 1978 in Moore's newly adopted home of Montclair, New Jersey, Delicate Tension is a masterful blend of Moore's twin skills in writing catchy pop tunes (the Paul McCartney-like "Schoolgirl" and the wistful "Zebra Standards 29" are among his finest ever) and oddball experiments like the largely spoken-word "An Expl. Of an Expr.," a flight of fancy about the excitement of New York City in the new wave era that's kind of like Patti Smith on Prozac. The new wave bubblegum of "Cool Daddio," "Adjacent Species Like You" and "Caffeine Boy" are among the highlights, as is the notorious "Don't Blame the Niggers," a slice of faux-disco written in protest of the casual racism that pervaded anti-disco hysteria in 1978, and two songs which use samples of instrumental tracks by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra as the basis of entirely new songs, pre-dating the ironic lounge explosion of the mid-'90s by nearly two decades. The much less poppy Moore Stuff is one of Moore's most experimental '70s albums, consisting largely of tape experiments like the hypnotic edit piece "The Leather Shoppe" and an amusing radio commercial for Berkeley's Rather Ripped Records, in which Moore freely admits that he's never actually been to the store while he showers it with praise. The two-CD compilation of these two 1978 releases adds On the Radio and On the Phone, 13 radio segments featuring DJs talking about and playing Moore's music as well as goofy in-character phone calls Moore made to his DJ pals at some of northern New Jersey's less commercial stations.

–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide