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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

- 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

Uh, what was that?

Fast and bulbous. Also, tapered.

a fish made this album

Wtf

Awesome

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.

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.

Should be a 2 but it made me laugh

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.

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

wtf

i got a headache and it freaked me out

Could not make it thru this artistic effort. Brutal

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Fuck you ‘Trout Mask Replica’, fuck you.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

There's not a single moment on this bloated mess that's enjoyable in any way. Weird for the sake of being weird. At last Zappa's shit jams. Also, that's a catfish. Best track: N/A

It was always beyond me, back in the day, how on earth this cacophonous discord was ever a rated album & it still is. The only difference is that I can no longer be bothered to wonder why.

They made this...on purpose? "Avant garde" will always sound like a cover for making noise that's indistinguishable from someone with no talent discovering an instrument. And why must these albums be so long? Scary that I can see where some other albums got inspiration from this like Tom Waits and the Minutemen. So a star because I'm learning and piecing together some music history. Otherwise, yikes.

This album is the musical equivalent of that modern art piece where the banana is taped to the wall. Critics will Ooh and Aah, and discuss the statement the banana makes and the commentary of some such or other they've pulled out of their arse. While the rest of us stare and say "It's a fucking banana". Granted, this album is probably for aspiring musicians and music producers who push forward the craft, rather than the typical music listener. I can't rate an album highly when critics' note "After I listened to the album for the 6th time, it made sense" as it's 80 minutes of experimental and a-rhythmic jargon. Not a fan, I will never listen to it again as it's not something I would actively choose to listen to. I'm sure it's a vital piece of music creation and influenced many, but one of those many isn't me.

Ugh

I did not like this album

One of the worst albums that I have ever listened heard. I don't have a clue how people on Youtube were saying that it's a masterpiece. So far, I've tried to listen it to four times. I can't finish it.

Hair Pie: Bake 1 made me feel like I was being attacked by geese. I had hope during the intro to Moonlight on Vermont but that hope was promptly smashed when the vocals started. It never got better!

Bloody racket

In what world did someone give these no talent hacks an hour and eighteen minutes to just make noise?! This is a literal waste of my time. As someone who has made music for years and can play multiple instruments, this does not take talent. Despite what people say, there is nothing complicated going on here. It just sucks. It actually makes me angry listening to this. GOD DAMMIT why do I have to listen to this fucking album?!?

this is fucking awesome big and bulbous

This was such a slog to get through. Far too experimental for my taste and the "art" of it was lost on me due to grating vocals and out of tune instruments. Those with refined musicianship seem like they "get it" but not me.

Yes but is it art?

Your opinion is not to be taken seriously if you rate this anything else than 1. Massive steaming pile of hot garbage this was. Absolutely no clue how it made it to this list. John Zorn level of musical criminal activity right here, absolutely disgusting. Truly a displeasure to listen to.

Unlistenable garbage. This being some creative genius album is definitely the biggest inside joke of the musical industry. Sadly like most inside jokes, outsiders are baffled by it.

There’s Chinese water torture and then there’s Captain Beefheart…

No, just no. I get that this was maybe experimental, but it was not enjoyable to listen to at all.

Yeah, didn't make it far into this. That's terrible.

i have a theory about records like this. i feel that this record was reviewed favourably by a well respected music critic (from rolling stone, for example), and because he/she is so well respected, other music critics will not admit that he is wrong. here we go… the best thing about this album is the cover. unique and surreal. fun. the music within is a chaotic mess. the instruments sound like a random scattering of noise, often with no discernible rhythm or tune. the singer can’t really sing and the lyrics are like the ramblings of a crazy person on the street corner. i have few regrets, but one of them is that i will never get that seventy eight minutes and fifty one seconds of my life back. complete and utter shite.

Couldn’t make it through this. Was so stressful.

WTF is this??????

What having a fit probably sounds like.

Absolute fucking nonsense.

Wild. Not for me.

The insipid experiments with no more substance than the goal to impress the listener already happened in 1969. A colleague of Zappa's but without his artistic savoir faire, Captain Beefheart gives light here to a sonorous experiment that sometimes comes close to music. It's laughable where it pretends to be imaginative; it's absurd where it pretends to be innovative; it's interminable where it pretends to be incomprehensible

Why is there no zero star option? This was terrible.

I made it through three songs before giving up to save my sanity

Nope

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should. No.

- nicht mehr auf Spotify, habe es über YouTube gehört - ich habe es bis zum 7. Song geschafft, aber ich kann einfach nicht mehr - Man kann es Kunst nennen, oder kreativ, oder experimentell, oder wegweisend anders.. keine Ahnung. Für mich ist es Abfall. Muss man ja auch mal sagen und anerkennen, reiner Abfall -1 / 5

- …… - …… - ähhhm… -…… - well… - ich verstehe, dass das Album absichtlich ist, wie es ist. - ABER WER HÖRT SICH DAS FREIWILLIG AN?!? - es gibt aber doch noch Teilpunkte, weil es irgendwas komisches mit mir gemacht hat Rating 0,75/5

Misery. A cacophonous wall of torturous sound and I don't hate myself enough to endure it all. Did not finish and listed to rain dogs instead which is a great album 5/5. I especially like tango till they're sore, rain dogs and anywhere I lay my head. I would recommend that anyone who is thinking of listening to this album listen to that one instead.

Sometimes I think albums make the cut on perceived significance, without actually being listened to. The first Capt Beefheart was insufferable and this was almost the same.

Känns som jag skulle kunna lyssna mig till bättre betyg på den här plattan men jag vill inte.

And I thought the first Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band album I got here was bad

If Frankenstein gave life to the drawings of banned cartoon characters from the cutting room floor, they would start this band.

not on spotify aikt listening

Nah this is is just shit. The fact that I mistook this for a Kansas Fried Chicken album of equal shortness did not make things better. Total puke.

Okay so uh. There’s interesting stuff happening here. It’s not unlistenably bad. I kinda want to give this a 2 just for the fascination factor of it, but I’m rating it in the middle because I’ve heard enough. It’s not good. What the captain is doing is not for me. But I support him.

Well the best part of this album were the intermittent YouTube ads offering short relief from the chaos lmao. I might have thrown an extra star out for experimentation/originality if it were short, but damn this is way too long to be so messy. Tbf I didn't really hate anything but I also didn't enjoy absolutely any song so

Listened to a playlist. I just don't get it. Sounded like bull going crazy in a music instrument shop.

Chaotic in a way that made my head spin. The album and artist names represent how odd this album is perfectly.

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.

our god is not a just god

Apparently it's one of the greats but you have to listen to it 7+ times to "get it". Until then, it's atonal, stream-of-consciousness, free-association junk.

Stratosphérique, le capitaine Beefheart est mon personnage préféré du générateur. Les instants live de ses performances sont de précieux gemmes, où le capitaine peut pleinement exprimer son handicap, face à une foule conquise. Un beau message d'espoir.

Un album tout ce qu'il y a de plus atroce, mais c'est pas au bout du 1068ème généré par Robert qu'on va se rendre compte que son livre est une escroquerie à plus de 20€.

I don’t understand this record.

What the actual fuck is this? It's like Primus, but take away all the talent and add a bucketload of annoying noise. I almost turned this off but I sat through it. Once is more than enough for this lifetime.

1.5 I can’t believe I listened to that whole thing. I like his voice and I can tell everyone on here is good at their instrument. It was painful, but I think that’s the point. Not all of the tracks were tough (Ella Guru, Sweet Sweet Bulbs, and Sugar N’ Spikes were legitimately enjoyable) but I can’t get above 1.5 considering the remaining hour.

Rubbish.

I’ve had one Captain Beefheart album so far. I can’t say that I liked that album, but I’ll remain hopeful that today’s album will be better. With an album cover like this, it has to be good, right? I hope so anyway. Let’s listen. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: none What an absolute earache this was. It’s being added to the very short list of albums that I couldn’t bear to finish. I got five minutes in and it just seemed to be a messy noise comparable to being in the same room as different musicians playing different songs at the same time. I then skipped a few songs in and it still sounded the same. Didn’t want to waste my time on this mess.

What the fuck did I just listen to?

One song was all I needed to know I would hate this record. Simply filled with noise and meaningless ideas. This is absolutely not for me.

Unlistenable. I guess having everyone listen is important in the same way as having everyone view a car wreck. “Hey look over there. Don’t do that”

Yeaa I have a hard time even calling this music. This was hard to listen to and I don't think I will ever revisit it or even tell anyone about it. I don't like the instrumentation, or Beefheart's voice, or lyrics. It's rough throughout. I will admit there are moments that caught my ear, but it's buried under such chaotic dissonance that it killed any momentary enjoyment.

listened to the milk album. weird sound.

I got about halfway through. This was truly terrible.

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.

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.

Не доступен в Спотифай

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