Reviews (page 8 of 8)
like nails on a chalkboard
Previously rated Hot Rats as 4 stars. Also own a copy of WOIFTM on cd, but had not listened to it for at least 20 years or so. In my memory: a 3-star perhaps 4-star album on a good day. 2023 view: Anti-hippie and right-wing mockery is fine of course. However, the typical Frank Zappa way in which this is done makes the whole album (not only the final "song") almost completely unlistenable and highly annoying, despite some catchy tune here and there. It is just not funny at all in contrast to the Real FZ autobiography, which is a great read! So: 1 star (2/10) despite its historical value.
Apart from some suggestions of melodies (e.g., Flower punk) this is completely unlistenable.
Ik dacht dat ik dit wel leuk zou gaan vinden na de beschrijving gelezen te hebben. Maar dit is gewoon een bende van een album. Ik weet niet wat voor drugs je op moet hebben hiervoor, maar ik zal wel op het verkeerde gezeten hebben.
Too weird for me. Frank Zappa is very strange
Highlights: Mother People Leave Em's: Nasal Retentive Calliope Music, Harry, You're A Beast, The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny Overall Thoughts: I do not comprehend what I listened to in this album. This is one of the strangest things I've ever heard. Everything from the song titles to the rip off of the Beatles album cover conveys such a crazy vibe. I didn't like hardly any of it and the stuff that was reminiscent of music was quickly cut into by either abrasive sounds, or off the cuff lyrics. This feels like a satirical album, however most satirical music that I have heard in the past has been some fun to listen to, this was not. Score Breakdown: 1.627 & 1 -> 1.314
not a fan
This record is a time machine. 40 minutes feels like two hours. And it's a long two hours. This sucks.
Isso me pareceu como completamente datado. Esperava que tivesse efeito ma minha mente, só senti que precisava de algum aditivo para entrar na onda do disco.
Shit
Actually questioning my own taste in music as I read all these 4 and 5 star reviews.
TRACKS: Are You Hung Up? [1] Who Needs The Peace Corps? [3] Concentration Moon [2] Mom & Dad [3] Telephone Conversation [1] Bow Tie Daddy [2] Harry, You’re A Best [1] What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? [3] Absolutely Free [2 Flower Punk [1] Hot Poop [1] Nasal Retentive Calliope Music [1] Let’s Make The Water Turn Black [2] The Idiot Bastard Son [1] Lonely Little Girl [2.5] Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance [2] What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? – Reprise [3] Mother People [3] The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny [1]
Interesting and satirically relevant to its time as it may be, it's not something I can casually experience, so it's difficult to truly enjoy. I've heard it, so it met its purpose on the list. Don't think I'd ever chose to go back to it.
Hard to listen to, and not enjoyable. Novelty songs about all of the people they don’t like.
3/10
Perhaps funny in the 60’s. Not today though.
Mmh
Sucesión de canciones extrañas sin ningún tipo de orden ni filosofía. No sé por qué está este disco metido en este ranking. Lo definiría como pop-rock psicodélico
I honestly have no idea what the fuck to do with Zappa's work. There is a lens that you need to view his work through and boy I don't got it. This is satyrical, absurd, and a real chore to listen to.
Album blague. Haha. Critique des Beatles et des bricolages sonores chiants expérimentaux. Sauf que résultat l'album est rempli de bricolages sonores expérimentaux idiots qui dénoncent les bricolages sonores des autres. Haha. Résultat c'est répétitif et chiant, le côté subversif s'est perdu dans le temps aujourd'hui que les Beatles sont toujours aussi écoutés et que Franck Zappa est plutôt oublié. Quelques chansons qui copient la veine pop des Beatles sont ecoutables, mais toujours bien en dessous des originaux. Seules quelques paroles sauvent l'ensemble. A la limite "the ugliest part of your body". Donc un grand bof bof qui a du être drôle et polémique la semaine de sa sortie, mais difficilement supportable aujourd'hui.
Expletives warning... "Hot Poop"? More like hot fucking garbage. Jesus fucking Christ whenever I see something Zappa related I swear a part of me dies and falls off. I have nothing positive to say about this shite. Total dogshit.
Very weird musical experience and lyrics
Wow was this irritating.
What... was this album?
Utter rubbish. If this was experimental, then I'm glad. So we can mark this down as a failure and move on.
There are several things I think of as I get through my second listening of this album. Firstly, I've never been a fan of Frank Zappa. That hasn't changed here, and also doesn't help when it comes to unpacking this album as a whole. Secondly, the fact that it comes as a parody, utilises a parody of The Beatles album cover, and was recorded in 1968 leads me to believe that to truly appreciate its quirkiness, I need to be stoned or on LSD or both. Thirdly, I'm certain the lyrics are clever and cutting, but given it was recorded over 50 years ago leads me to believe it has... dated somewhat in that arena. In the long run, it is the first point that I think weighs so heavily on my own rating of this album. It's hard to get past an artist that you don't really have a connection with to try and get the most out of an album. "Absolutely Free" appears the closest to a song that I could accept. The rest is rather average in my opinion.
Yeah, it's a no for me.
This has been such a tough one to get through. I don't know if they were aiming for being funny, but I personally cannot find enjoyment in this at all. 1.25/10
not for me ta.
There are only a couple of tracks here that can generously be called songs. It's mostly enlightened centrist anti-zeitgeist horseshit. Best track: Let's Make the Water Turn Black
Dit gaat echt weer veel te ver, hoor!
Hier kan ik echt werkelijk 10x niks mee
De mensen die vinden dat dit een baanbrekend album zou zijn moeten zich laten nakijken.
Dirge.
This was horrible. I really like some Zappa, but the chipmunk singing...
Just.....no. A lot of noise.
Nah
I've heard about Frank Zappa for a long time and wondered what the best entry point is for his music. This wasn't it for me. Impish and experimental, the album makes fun of 60's culture and music. I'm sure this felt radical at the time but it feels like a relic now. There aren't enough standout moments to elevate it beyond being a curiosity of the era. "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" was my favorite. Absurd and goofy and parodies 60's R&B very well, but it's real goal is to shake you out of your mundane existence and tell you that your life is a lie. I think that's the goal of the whole album but this was the only time that message really clicked and worked for me.
The whole album is obviously a commentary on some world/societal topics. Lots of lyrics about abuse from cops- I'm up to track 4 and I think I've heard a lyric about that in 3 songs so far. There's this thing that pervades in Frank Zappa projects that just sort of annoys me... so much of his music comes across as weirdly pompous, even though his whole shtick is that he makes experimental music and fights conventionality (which is usually attractive to me). I don't fully understand why I feel this way, and to be honest I've probably only heard maybe like a third of his released material across all of his projects so maybe I'm not well versed enough to give it an objective critique. I feel this in this release too. There's just these overwhelming concepts that I feel like are just being screamed at me from Zappa / the band. "THIS IS ART." "LISTEN TO OUR ART AND FEEL SOMETHING." "OUR ALBUM COVER IS LIKE SGT. PEPPERS." "LOOK AT ME IN A DRESS ON THE ALBUM COVER." Maybe it's because I'm in a great mood and I don't feel like ingesting art that is critiquing everything, but in the simplest form of experiencing music, this just isn't enjoyable for me to listen to. There's a lyric on track 7, "Harry, You're a Beast": "You paint your head Your mind is dead You don't even know what I just said That's you, American womanhood" [then burping pig sounds, cacophonous chimes] "You're phony on top, you're phony underneath You lay in bed & grit your teeth" I just, I dunno man. Maybe if the music here was some amazing melody or some really incredibly written hook or something I would enjoy this part, but I can't help but think "who hurt you?". I do understand the idea that this was experimental at the time, and also could be seen as a form of "punk" music in a rebellious sense and without typical punk timbres like distorted guitars, fast drums, and aggressive vocals. It's outsider (ish)! It's the artists saying "we are seeing things in the world that we don't like and we are using our music as a vehicle to express these feelings" and I respect and appreciate that. It's interesting to me that an overarching theme in this listening project is the listener's context in experiencing the music. On a different day, maybe I would be enjoying this more- even now, I'm listening to track 9, "Absolutely Free", and it is cool sounding. It has meter changes, interesting melodies, instrumentation at times that isn't what I would expect for the 1960's (like the ending 20 seconds of music). But I guess that's just part of the experience and listener context is inherent, ubiquitous, and unavoidable. I read that Jimi Hendrix on the album cover (far right) is actually him in person. I just gotta give it a 1/5.
Not my cup of tea.
Just noise. Couldn’t wait for it to finish.
Not good.
Прослушано! Откровенная Мура, вообще не понял набор звуков.
Listening to this made me irrationally angry
Maybe it was funny at the time, but humour has moved on since the late '60s. To be any good, comedy albums need to be both really funny and musically excellent. This is neither. Rating: 1.5/5 Playlist track: What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? Date listened: 10/11/22
I don’t get its
This album proves, rather conclusively, that a recording of a bunch of guys talking amongst themselves as they fool around does not make for great music.
Not really my vibe
It’s a big NO from me Just not the genre of music that appeals to me, having listened to it I wouldn’t do so again
Surely there was another album that could've squeezed into the 1001 list over this bullshit. Horrid late 60s nonsense. Gotta be one of the worst albums on this list. 1/10.
Really stupid and somewhat annoying. The more album sits with me the more I wanted to buy a vinyl of it just destroy it
style of music is unique.
what? what did i listen to? i’m not entirely sure this is art or even music. the reoccurring whispering was awful and grating to my ears. it was plain weird and not in the charming way. there was a nice piano solo, but uh. that’s all. i respect frank zappa a lot both personally and professionally, but this was one of the worst albums on this list. i just have so many questions for zappa. i’ll never get them answered. but thank goodness he moved away from the kazoo in this album. i can say the personnel notes were the most amusing i have ever seen.
This is more tolerable than the other Mothers of Invention album on this project. But just barely. I can at least see what the intended purpose was: to parody The Beatles and the hippie movement. This album's scope was much more specific and carried a message encouraging people to rebel against binary social and political thinking. This made it a little further from drivel and closer to making an important statement. But still. I didn't like it.
My god it's random, but not in a good way.
My thoughts on finishing this album were something along the lines of: What just happened? I feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears. Did people get paid actual money to do this? I only listened to the first 15-20 seconds of most tracks because that's all I could take. Not even "so bad it's good."
I kept thinking over and over again: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
I do like myself an ADHD trip from time to time. I mean, I listen to Fantomas and They Might Be Giants -- by choice. But the individual fleeting components have to be good. This is maybe 10% good and none of the good bits get to stick around for long before they move on to the next whatever.
This is another one of those albums where it helps to be stoned to truly love it. I'm gonna need to take a whole lotta more of whatever they took.