Trout Mask Replica

Remember that scene from A Clockwork Orange when that dude in a wheelchair locks Malcolm McDowell in an upstairs room and plays Beethoven loudly, knowing it'll drive him insane? And it causes McDowell's character Alex such sickening pain that he throws himself out of the window? That's what this album made do, and I'm still in sickening pain as I write this. Apparently the dude who created The Simpsons of all people claims you have to listen to this album a whopping SEVEN times before you realize it's brilliant. I don't have that many windows I'm willing to jump out of to confirm whether or not he's correct.

This is not a bad album. On a technical level, what they are doing takes immense amount of skill and you can tell that all musicians involved are virtuosos in their own right. On the question of how enjoyable it is, it is unbridled creativity, a storm of brutal sound that can also be quite intriguing at times, like an LSD-infused dadaist poetry slam. But I won't be listening to it regularly, I imagine. It is TOUGH to get through. The best use for this album is as a palate-cleanser. It doesn't matter what you were listening to before, Napalm Death or Mariah Carey, Iron Maiden or Stevie Wonder - by the end of this album, your brain will have thoroughly reset and by any chance, you won't even remember how you got here. But it's going to be an uncomfortable 80 minutes until then.

You could give this a 5 for the sheer brass balls of releasing this on the public, but, really, it gets a 1 for being shit.

Alright, this certainly is one of the albums ever created. Impossible to separate the artist and the mythology from the music itself, when the entire thing truly sounds like someone held talented musicians against their will and forced them to learn these horribly complex compositions. But in the end, the record really is a blast. Never boring, often humorous, and avoids being repetitive in its challenging of the listener. 'Bill's Corpse' really is a bop.

I understand this album is incredibly complex, creative, and original. I also find listening to this type of polytonal, polyrhythmic music to be a chore. Because certain arrangements are possible does not mean they'll sound good. I'll let music scholars sing the praises of this album; it sounded horrible to me.

Captain Beefheart you son of a gun. You owe me a go on your sister's tits. She disappeared down a drain pipe on a dark night last spring. She broke my heart, she broke my mind, she broke my penis and I cried. Shelly Beefheart, my love, my muse, my everything.

I can truly understand why this album is one of the lowest rated albums on this list. It is 80 minutes of audio chaos and I’m sure many listeners aren’t even going to get to the end of “Frownland”, let alone the last track. It’s hard to believe that this charted in the UK the first week that it was out, but it did and I’m sure that it was word of mouth that caused it not to chart the second week. That being said, this album is a masterpiece and totally deserves to be on the list. There’s nothing that sounds like it back in 1969 and unlike the Velvet Underground, which was trying to be different in the most pretentious way possible this album is different in the most unpretentious way. You won't find any Warhol-inspired fashionable music on here nor anything romantic either. It’s as raw as a punk album but with some of the crazy polyrhythms that you would expect to find on an avant-garde classical album. All the while Van Vliet’s lyrics and vocals seem to be taking you somewhere quite different entirely. It seems like Zappa the producer was hearing all of this and instead of producing just sat in the studio smoking his cigarettes and letting the chaos unfold around him. That hands-off approach is probably what made this album what it is and I'm forever thankful for it. Trout Mask Replica is an album that when someone says it's total garbage and unlistenable I can actually see where there coming from and just say that I love it for what it is. It is not an album that I can listen to often. But when I do listen to it, I’m glad that I live in a world where this album was able to be made. I’m also going to give this 5 stars for 2 reasons. The first is that someone had the balls to make this at a time when they had to either know that it was not going to make them any money or had enough faith in the listening public to think that they’d like something as far out there as this. The second is that I don’t think anyone else here has given it 5 stars yet (4 is the highest that I’ve seen so far).

The album is a fucking trip. It encourages me to be freer with my own creativity, because there are things on here that just seem like silly-ass outtakes - then the next song slaps you in the face with the ripping guitars and forceful vocals. It defies category and stands out.

As silly as it sounds, Matt Groening was right, it does take multiple listens until it just clicks. I've listened to this a bunch over the years and it's a favorite now. Loved reading all the takes from other unsuspecting listeners, they are not wrong lol.

a fish made this album

Fast and bulbous. Also, tapered.

Wtf

This sounds like an entire band falling down stairs, but they keep playing.

My spirits made up of the ocean And the sky and the sun and the moon And all my eyes can see I cannot go back to your land of gloom Where black jagged shadows Remind me of the coming of your doom I want my own land Take my hand and come with me It's not too late for you if it's not too late for me To find my homeland Where a man can stand by another man Without an ego flying With no man lying And no one dying by an earthly hand Let the devils burn and the beggar learn And the little girls that live in those old worlds Take my kind hand My smile is stuck I cannot go back to your frownland Here's the thing, this isnt FOR you. Its for THEM. The people who made this album made it because THEY wanted it. They didnt give a fuck that it wasnt going to make any money, it was ART. Art for the sake of art? Man, we could use more of that in this late-stage capitalist hellscape. 5/5

Matt Groening is way too naive. He got scammed when he bought that expensive double album, and so listened to it again and *again* to convince himself that he had actually made a good "investment" when he acquired that unlistenable record. If that's not a symptom of a "hellbent late-capitalist world", I don't know what is. As suggested in that last remark, a couple of reviewers on this app are probably as naive as Groening. The truth is that if most people keep on listening to *any* record, they will eventually find some redeeming features in them. Heck, this app made me go through albums by Christina Aguilera, Taylor Swift or Bonnie Raitt, and I eventually found a fistful of listenable songs in them (Yes, I did, as hard as that was, lol). Didn't work with Limp Bizkit or Kid Rock, of course, but I guess that if someone tortured me by exposing me to their albums 24/7, I would make some sort of effort to focus on the "positive", let's say. To put it in a nutshell, I'm not buying that "you-need-to-listen-to-this record-six-times-to-get-how-brilliant-it-is" yarn. Some truly great records are indeed "slow growers", but we're talking about very different animals here. A "slow grower" implies that if you're not directly and automatically attuned to an album you actually end up loving, you're not entirely put off by it either. This eventual love can't happen if your first reaction is to find the music obnoxious, grating, egregious what have you... And make no mistake, *Trout Mask Replica*'s music is VERY egregious. A couple of famous artists, including some that I find brilliant, like David Lynch, have professed their love for this double-LP. But my take is that they love it because its apparent free-formed nature liberates their own unbridled creativity, just as John Frusciante puts it so nicely in that wikipedia quote. More power to them. Maybe I'm not bright enough as a creator myself. Maybe the fault lies in my blocked shakras. Yet even if that's the case, I don't think those positive takes can "defend" this music so well. Gestalt therapy can for instance help you open your mind's eye and get "in the zone", as they say. But Gestalt therapy should be considered as a means here, not an end. If therapy was considered as an artistic achievement in itself, you would have bland new age sophrological albums sold for yoga classes in this list. Glad there's not any. The "therapy" suggested by *Trout Mask Replica* is admittedly very different. But that doesn't matter. What it has in common with sophrological music is how perfunctory and artificial it sounds. And it also doesn't matter that its contents are supposedly so "difficult", as if only "great minds" could get it (that's elitist bullshit, right?). For the record, I'm not saying that all "essential albums" should be easily digestible. And I do believe that challenging music can be rewarding in the long run. But you need something that counterbalances the solipsistic nature of said challenging music at some point. You need a buoy to prevent you from drowning into nothingness, whether this lifeline is a recognizable rhythm or a sketched melodic hook. Heck, even Throbbing Gristle can pull it off once in a while. And Captain Beefheart himself had tons of great musical ideas as well in his *true* masterpiece *Safe As Milk*, a groundbreaking, tongue-in-cheek and also challenging work for sure, and yet one that could be enticing and even accessible at times... Plus, you need some sorts of relatable emotions. Seems to me that so-called "difficult" acts such as Robert Wyatt or Ensturzende Neübaten have those emotions in spades within their off-kilter music. In comparison, the music on *Trout Mask Replica* is just a stifling hysterical performance *pretending* to display those radical emotions, and doing it within a pointless simulacrum that even worsens things. I've read that Don Van Vliet actually harrassed and mistreated his musicians during the sessions for this album. Probably why it sounds so devoid of true joy in my ears. You can't fake genuine emotions. So fuck Lester Bangs and Rolling Stone magazine. I'm not even mad at Van Vliet, because he followed his vision at least, and he tried hard to think out of the box. Which on paper, is always commendable. But I blame the pretentious fakers having some sort of influence at the time of this album's release. They're part of the scam. That scam gave the opportunity for folks such as Matt Groening to tell a story from their youths, which proves that the album is relevant on a cutural and intellectual standpoint. But musically, it's just a pile of turd. And anyone who says the contrary risks coming off as a pretentious faker as well. Not saying they *all* are. But *some* of them are, you can bet your boots on that... 1/5 for the purposes of this list. 6/10 for more general purposes (5 for general musical competency + 1 for the album's reputation and "impact") Number of albums left to review: 137 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 370 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 219 (including this one - for historical reasons only, and also because this record is the "platonic ideal" of the quote-unquote "hermetic experimental album", and as such, could be considered as one you need to listen to, if only for your "intellectual" edification). Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 278

Unironic 5 stars. It’s hard to process, but that’s the point. Once you hear how one part complements another, it all makes sense. Active listening is absolutely required, otherwise it will just sound like noise. Ask yourself where artists like Primus, The Residents, and Black Midi would be today without this album.

Hey, I get it: this is a challenging record. I doubt anyone listens to this regularly, "for fun." If I got in a car and the driver put Trout Mask Replica on the stereo I'd open the passenger door and tuck and roll my way to safety/freedom. But if you're running through this list and barely make it through Frownland, then turn it off and slap one star and some snarky "ew the simpsons guy was wrong!" pap as a review; or even give this a full listen and still think this warrants a flat 1 and a kiss-off...you're not taking this very seriously and should have all your other reviews wiped from the site. And if you think that's unfair: hey, I don't make the rules. 'Cause if I did, that would be one of them.

- definition of scaring the hoes - Sounds like crack was heavily involved - I can’t tell if every word is meticulously planned out or freestyled - Sometimes they get into a groove but it’s very rare - The singer actually has a cool voice - HOBO CHANG BAAAAAAA - Kinda feels like a really dark fucked up version of the chili peppers - Overall just an absolute mess of people learning to play instruments and a singer that needs to be committed. It held my attention the whole time and is unlike anything I’ve heard before or will hear again. 5 stars

Awesome

Uh, what was that?

Man oh man, this is a wild album and I really liked it. It’s a hallucinatory journey through Americana.

I had a great time listening to this, actually! The first track is so jarring but really effectively shocked me into the mental state to enjoy my journey to Captain Beefheart's soundscape.

i got a headache and it freaked me out

Drumbo is fantastic, he’s just a goddamn machine. Everything about this records is meticulously done Perfectly curated this edgy and jarring surreal vibe. Exciting in a deeply special way. The rating here is atrocious, I don’t think the shock would be so big if these people just listened to some fucking jazz for once in their life and realize the music is here actually isn’t that crazy

Well, that was wild. I think this would've been more appropriately titled if it was His Magic Mushroom Band because this is the sound of tripping.

Should be a 2 but it made me laugh

Could not make it thru this artistic effort. Brutal

My smile is unstuck, i can now go back to your frownland

5/5. It's wild because I was preparing to hear unlistenable music and then it was just Frank Zappa, just a little more chaotic. Sure, this honestly feels more like artists trying stuff just to try it, even sounding like none of them have picked up an instrument before. And yet other times it is counteracted by intelligent and complicated riffs and musicianship, creating a fine line between both. I think by the end of it, I would say this is an album of so many creative ideas that it's too important not to rate high. And the lyrics in the spoken word songs are so weird it feels like I am having a fever dream. Any musician can hear the amazing songwriting here, it's hard to deny this is an awesome album. Best Song: Moonlight on Vermont, China Pig, Ella Guru (Honestly it depends on the day though which one I like the most)

This is truly a masterpiece - I heard it 30 years ago as a kid but thought "this is crap". Ahhh...the folly of youth. I was wrong. This is a tour-de-force of constant ideas and sounds made even better with the random adverts that YouTube inserts since I cannot listen to it on Spotify. Kind of sums up the whole nonsensical vibe of the album.

This is probably a 3 for the actual listening, but I gotta give it 5 stars for the bit, and what a bit it is! Rounding up a bunch of talented musicians and locking them down and making them rehearse the shit out of some horribly complex compositions over and over again until they can nail them every time - and the compositions in question sound, to the average listener, like a bunch of talentless fools playing at random? Top bants! 😆 Also, this review has been something of a personal revelation - I saw some of the other reviews talking about how looooong this was which struck me as odd - I assumed the site was linking to some anniversary edition with a disc of bonus tracks or something (which would have been a great bit in itself!) but it turns out my copy of this album is incomplete! I only had the first disc?! I've taken a crack at this album every now and again over the years and it turns out I've only ever listened to half of it!? 😆 Fave tracks - from the half I'm familiar with, "Ella Guru", "Moonlight in Vermont", "Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish", "China Pig". From the new to me half, "Pena" (I love all the "fast & bulbous" stuff 😆 ), "Well" (quasi Gregorian chant!?), "The Blimp (Mousetrap Replica)"

Once you get hooked on listening to this album you want to listen to it again and again. Way ahead of their time.

Atonal caterwauling I like. Where free jazz meets electric delta blues.

I know this is way out there, but I was actively engaged listening to it. It was refreshing to have something that compelled me to pay attention, even though I’m not sure why.

This album is a lot of fun, chaotic and pretty all over the place. Captain Beefheart's sound is truly unique and he is truly an artist. This album is a trip to listen to.

Always meant to get around this this one and was surprised to not hate it or find it that much of a challenge---must have heard enough music inspired by it over the years that it doesn't seem that crazy. I really like Double Nickels on the Dime by Minutemen and today realized that Trout Mask Replica was likely a huge influence.

Word is that you have to listen to this double album six times before it doesn't sound terrible. While I can appreciate the creativity and difficulty in producing this unique work, it might take a while for me to appreciate it. Trout Mask Replica was added to the United States National Recording Registry for the year 2010 by the Library of Congress. Wow. I may have to check back with an update at a later date.

Supposedly you have to listen to this 7 times before you "get it". I'm retired and have all the time in the world, but there's no way in hell I'm listening to this again.

Couldn’t really dive deep into it. Someone said “this album sounds like your first day at the job” and I agree. I appreciate the artistic taste and value of it.

What a piece of crap. This seems like it’s talented musician playing poorly and they made an album out of it. With a name like Captain Beefheart I was excited to see what this was going to be. Sadly, it’s garbage. I don’t know why anyone would listen to this ever. Wish I could give less than 1 star.

wtf

Captain Beefheart is a sadistic, weird Tom Waits without the musicality and goofy likeability.

Alright, time to review this masterpiece—an album that was one of my absolute favorites back in secondary school. First and foremost, I truly believe this is Captain Beefheart’s greatest work. Trout Mask Replica feels like a doomsday-apocalypse documentary set to music. But that’s just the beginning. This album defiantly spits in the face of everything that was considered relevant at the time: the underground, the overground, folk, progressive rock—even the entire rock establishment. Hats off to you, Captain. If I had to highlight a couple of tracks, they’d be “Dachau Blues” and “Moonlight on Vermont.” But honestly, the whole album is worth your time. Just sit down, put on your headphones, and crank the volume to the max.

If I could give this album a zero, I would.

Ha! Now look. You may not like it. You may hate it. You may well feel it's the largest pool of pretentious toss ever committed to any recorded medium. But give it a chance. Once you start finding reasons to like it you'll never stop.

We mortals can never understand the genius that is this album 5/5

horrible and almost unlistenable but also brilliant

It's like a squid eating dough in a poly-ethelene bag

Haha, I had to turn to YouTube for this album: it's not on Tidal! I can definitely tell why enjoyers of conventional music are hating this experience... this is some weird shit. I like weird shit. This was fun, and now my YouTube recs are going to be a little bit weirder, which is also fun. What a good time.

What a strange conglomeration of styles and genres. Just weird, crazy music. However, I found it interesting in an odd way for me. This was certainly something ahead of its time for 1969. In retrospect, I was just 6 years old and had no clue that this stuff was out there. For the great creativity and pioneering spirit I give it 4 stars!

Fuck you ‘Trout Mask Replica’, fuck you.

I totally dug that offbeat album. It’s obvious to see the influence it had on Tom Waits and I look forward to giving it another listen.

I mean - it’s an interesting record undoubtedly - but it also is not very listenable. Probably before Gunnars app I had tried doing this 1000 album thing and this record was the first one I had tried - needless to say it was discouraging. Now - so far into this exercise and in context one can appreciate its place in the list yet I think I’m not going to be seeking it out much in the future.

I approach this album with some trepidation similar to when an album by slayer. Or iron maiden comes up here. It's not that I dislike metal and things like that. It's just that I don't know what i'm getting myself into often at an early hour in the day. Also I read some brief reviews of this and saw how it's one of the lowest rated albums in the entire project. I also knew of captain beef hearts affiliation with Zappa. So that in itself meant this would be weird and interesting. I don't know how else to write this up so it will be sort of like a brief travel log from my day. I drive a truck around in the Chicago area all day. It's partly why this project has been so great for me to hear new random stuff all the time. So I make the final delivery in West Chicago and have to drive all the way back up to Gurnee. The North suburbs, the journey will take about an hour and a 1/2. Which is roughly how long this album which is the double album. First couple of tracks must be on here to separate out those who are ready for the journey and cull the herd, so to speak. If you can't get through those first two, then this is just not meant for you. And it's better to probably just get out of the way. I decide to carry on after about 10 or 15 minutes. I think to myself you know what? I need to just see how much weirder this gets because it's gonna get weirder. I can't believe a record company actually released this. Turn off it does get weirder. And it's just hard to even explain. But within the weirdness, there are some cool beats and grooves where you just cast things off. Wow, that's an interesting what? What was that? How did that happen? Where that come from? So between just strange spoken word nonsense and weird polyrms and times signatures. And whatever else at all was is interesting music. In the very small amounts that you can hear in there. But there's just so much else going on. And it's just so damn weird that it's just. You don't even know what to think about it. When else would I ever play this? I certainly could never play this any sort of social setting. This could certainly not be separate music. But it is weird and it is interesting and it gets. I don't know I have to I could just only put it right in the middle like 3 stars. So they we go. What also was strange as I had to listen to It on YouTube. Because it's not on Apple Music or Spotify. Believe it or not, so during this strangeness, that's going on. They're all the Sudden will be an ad for Disney World or other things like that. Because the algorithm remembers that I watched some Disney World videos in preparation for a tripl awhile back. So it's very kinda disjointed to all of a sudden have a targeted ad for Disney World pop-up. And the middle of this absolute strangeness. After an ended, I was about 10 minutes away from the shop. And just let it go in silence the rest of the way trying to process what I had just listened to. And I still don't really understand what the hell that was but it was a trip. So this is just too interesting and weird to give a one. But it's also just too weird and out there to give a 5. So I gotta just give it the three. I type this up on a voice to text self. There's any weird grammatical airs or formating issues it's because of that.

Best comments from YouTube: "This album is one of the reasons my friends don't let me pick music in the car" "This sounds like an entire band falling down the stairs, but they keep playing" "I have never experienced such a strong desire to keep listening and stop listening at the same time"

It does take some effort to listen to in its entirety, but there are some true gems in there. The concept is really crazy, I like it. I still think of the trout mask included in the vinyl. I don't have it, though. Love all the talking passages and the fact that the album got made in like one single 6 hour session. Pena is still my all time favorite. + Ella Guru + Sweet Sweet Bulbs + Pena + Fallin' Ditch + Sugar 'n Spikes + Ant Man Bee + Orange Claw Hammer + Wild Life FAST AND BULBOUS

What if every song on an album was a mandatory overtime style jam? Well here you are. This sounds like the musical equivalent of experiencing schizophrenia. You can hear the influence it had on later Tom Waits albums, and I have respect for the insane bravery of this chaotic experiment, but definitely not something I'd listen to for enjoyment. I prefer his somewhat more tuneful output that followed.

I get the idea. Surrealistic. Polyrhythmic. Polytonal. Fractured. Chaotic. In Captain Beefheart's words, "fast and bulbous". I'm sure the album has had a major impact on rock, punk, and especially 80s new wave, with its bent toward surrealism. I just didn't think it necessary for Captain Beefheart and company to record over 78 minutes of sonic disruption and verbal incongruity. With its point already clear by the time the fifth track rolled around, the album dragged on and all the avant-garde pretensions became gratuitous.

This Album will be in my divorce papers.

I’m sure there are going to be people who give this a 5. People who are the music equivalent to art-wankers. Those who think that if you put a 12 foot square frame around an emulsion wall, or place an unmade bed with a steaming turd in the corner of an art gallery then it must be art. Those that would then write a 10 thousand word thesis on the feelings that the painter and decorator was having and the traumas they were going through when they created it. In the same way that the shitty bed isn't art, this album is not music (in the sense that everyone else understands music). It’s not melodic and meaningful. It doesn’t have a rhythm that inspires movement or a melody that might implant itself into your unconsciousness so that when you hear it again - maybe decades later - it inspires you to remember what you were doing or who you were with. No, pretentious art-wanker-music-equivalents would rather perpetuate an illusion that they (and the performer) were trying to express some deeper meaning to life the universe and everything that us mere mortals couldn’t hope to understand. And so they are somehow smarter than the rest of us. In short - they can see the emperors clothes. And it’s all bullshit. It’s just a bloke who can’t play the right notes and has no real sense of rhythm. It does get a 2 though. The reason being that, unlike Eno’s ‘Ambient’ horseshit, it was never boring. I just wouldn’t ever listen to it again.

I am preaching to the choir here clearly - but how can an album be simultaneously creative, original, and complex AND grating and completely wrong. It must be so difficult to purposefully play something that doesn't follow any conventional beats...

uhhh i don't get it. i think it's funny when he says "a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous got me" though. 2.5/5

I can’t pretend that I enjoy the music (*yet*… maybe it’ll all click one day) but I still feel somewhat enriched for having heard this mythical piece of tomfoolery before I die. What I can say with certainty is that I enjoy the album art and title very much. Very much indeed.

I wasn't jiving with this one. It was interesting, but not something I'd listen to regularly.

I used to hate this for how "quirky" it was. It's like a hipsters staple album to brag about cause it's so "unconventional". Honestly, it's not that bad, it's just not really my thing.

I wish the Spotify link was the actual length of the album.

It honestly sounds like dementia patients having musical diarrhea. There are no redeeming qualities besides when it eventually ends. Pretentious and pompous as a “great album” when in reality it quite the opposite. It’s the first time in my life I wished I was deaf. Is it art? Sure, but it’s not good art. It’s terrible art in the worst way possible. It’s a potpourri of baby vomit and freshly stepped in dog shit but in musical form. Walking into an any Guitar Center and hearing musicians randomly play parts of songs overtop of each other is about as enjoyable, and the same level of talent, as this album. Jesus this is just fucking awful noise. I’d rather have a colonoscopy than listen to this. If I could give it zero stars I would. Here is how I know the people reviewing this with 5 star ratings and giving it praise are full of shit…. If they went to an elementary school talent show and hear a bunch of 8 year olds playing this, they would cringe and have a hard time sitting through their performance. Afterwards they would give the kids words of encouragement stating that with some more practice, they can get really good.

Ok i waited tile the 3rd song to type this but nobody can enjoy listening to this right? I'm all for off beat/weird stuff but I'm talking MF doom, J Dilla type beats not uncomfortable out of rhythm saxophone and guitar strums. what do i know? i hate this

Een dubbelalbum vol met Zappaesque flauwekul, ik heb hier al zo geen zin in. Ik ga een Muldertje pullen: van een paar nrs snel een halve minuut van luisteren of het wat is en daarna op 1 ster drukken. Meer woorden wil ik er ook niet aan vuil maken. Dit is simpelweg verschrikkelijk.

good lord

So bad it wasn't even on Spotify

Dit was gewoon raar

That’s not even music is it?

This... this is torture. I listened to many bad records here on this list, but I couldn't continue after the 4th track or so. Couldn't find it on Apple Music, so I had to use YouTube. The commercials were a welcome break. -5 stars if it would be possible.

I get it. But it still sucks to listen to.

I genuinely wanted to give this a second try, but it's not on Spotify! And I'll be damned if I'm both listening to this and also dealing with YouTube Music's horrible user experience, so the initial ranking stands

Couldn’t find it on Spotify. Apparently doesn’t exist.

Still don’t get it after 60+ years of trying

Wondered why I’ve always avoided Captain Beefheart and now I know.

I've heard the name many times before, and may have even dabbled in the past, but Captain Beefheart continues to elude my brain and scrambles my very thoughts.

???????????

Someone was clearly joking when this made the list. Utter tripe…

Cult classic. Unlistenable, in other words.

Sounds terrible and is not enjoyable but I feel like thats the point.

Suffered through this. I know the point was to “break the rules and conventions of music” but the conventions won this fight smh I suffered

Yeah, I ain’t feeling it. 1.3

Mom Im gonna be a rock star. Lets form a garage band No one will sign us It dont matter they dont understand our music Lets record our own record and produce it cause no producer will understand our sound. Bring his guitar hero band mates and records and puts this out. You know when you see sonething really sloppy and crappy and say my 6 year old can do that better well he probabaly can. This to me qualifies as performance art more than actual music. I understand that in the late 60s the hippie craze was huge and they were looking for new fresh sounds and some crazy 💩 was recorded and released. This is one of them.

Eww, no, gross.

Total Goldblum. Captain Beefheart must have been so preoccupied with whether or not he could create such difficult and complex arrangements that he didn't stop to think whether he should make something so catastrophically unlistenable. Rating: 1/5 Playlist track: Hair Pie: Bake 1 Date listened: 04/06/24

Could not listen until the end. Horrible

First of all if you are listening with spotify it's not on there anymore. Well after some searching I found it. All I can say is this was a waste of time i absolutely hated this. It was just too strange for me trust me I know quite some "weird" stuff looking at you:"Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict" but this was on a different level

personal rating: 1/10

I genuinely feel for anyone who has invested significant time in the mental gymnastics needed to convince themselves that this dreck holds artistic value, conditioning themselves through constant repetitive trauma to find artificial enjoyment in it. Life is short. Embrace it. Hug your wife and kids. Call your mum. Cuddle your cat.

This is definitely one of the albums that has ever existed. It has tracks I think identify as songs? Man straight up, this album was absolute trash. Maybe if you were in the middle of a coke-fueled binge this would be passable? No idea, but man this was a bad album.

Upon listening to this album, one observes an involuntary physiological response, akin to the visceral reactions humans exhibit towards certain auditory stimuli which, from an evolutionary standpoint, are deemed hazardous and thus avoided for survival. The experience elicited by each note and melody transcends mere aesthetic preference, invoking a profound and almost primal reaction. This suggests that, to some extent, the auditory experience of this album activates a survival mechanism, serving as a reminder of the intrinsic human imperative to safeguard oneself against elements that fundamentally clash with one's natural inclinations.

Literally what the fish

To quote Mic the Snare: "Music theory: don't do it, kids." I can understand, conceptually, why this album is on this list. It's considered a "classic," an example of what free-jazz can do for *your* rock and roll, a willful bucking of pop structure and defiance towards the listener; the can-you-believe-it-sounds-like-this-on-purpose of it all. That's all fine and great, and I didn't dislike absolutely everything about this album. I suppose it's impressive that this music was carefully written and arranged to sound like this on purpose, and that the band was able to execute Mr. Beefheart's vision, but that knowledge doesn't automatically make this listenable for me. I've heard that if you listen to this album enough, the brilliance shines through. I'll have to live on in ignorance. Highlights (?): Ella Guru, Moonlight On Vermont, China Pig, Well

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This is the soundtrack in hell. It was the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Some critics put it as high as top 60 of all time. Absolutely terrible. It wasn’t even on Spotify.

Spotify doesn't play this one for some reason? Found it on YouTube. Disappointing and confusing. I wanted to like it, just didn't get it and definitely could not get thru much of any it.