Trout Mask Replica

Can we stop having albums that aren't on streaming platforms? A sign that not everything complex and difficult is necessarily "good." The "Finnegan's Wake" of records. I have these neighbors who destroyed a perfectly good portion of their lawn to create a prairie garden. While they may understand that a prairie garden provides more biodiversity, they expended a lot of effort to make their yard look like garbage. This album is the musical equivalent of that: a lot of effort for a "what the f*ck are you doing?" response. This sounds like something I'd make up when I'm goofing around and want to annoy my family. I think I'll use it to wake my kids up from now on.

There are no words to describe how bad this album is. Without any doubt the worst thing I've ever listened to, and the first time I've really struggled to get through an album on this list. Complete and utter shit. I wish there was an option to give 0 stars. Wow.

I just want to be the only person who gives this album a 3.

We used to be a proper country, with actual freaks. It wasn't as bad as I expected going in, but there was no way I was making it through the entire double album. Tuneful at moments, but gravelly vocals and noise for noise's sake combined for a rough listen.

What a strange album. It's nearly unlistenable, it's almost all unstructured noise and slam poetry vocals. Unsurprised to learn it was produced by Frank Zappa. I've heard a Captain Beefheart album on this list that was pretty good blues rock, I gave it a 4/5, so I know these guys can make good music, but this ain't it. There were one of two songs with minimal structure that had a little blues-something going on that will save this from the Hall of Shame, but there's not a lot to grab onto here. This is experimental rock in every sense of the word. 2/5

Not streaming, but I'll look for this one.

Fucking Mood

caos, no entendí pero me gustaron los sonidos.

Sometimes I give experimental stuff points for being different but this is just fresh bull****.

Didn't have chance to listen

Interesting

This is my first 1/5 (and hopefully my only). I didn't know what I was getting into prior, but after the first song I had an idea of what the listening experience would be. I think this project is too cerebral and quite removed from the ideas of conventional music - it's clear that this project was created to be difficult to listen to. This frustrated me throughout, as I caught bits of arrangements where the music sounded great... only for them to change the entire sound to something bizarre and awkward sounding. Good for them to have the desire to make something like this and show where you can go with instruments - this wasn't music to me, it was an essay using sounds.

yeah ok

Actual garbage

It’s not common for me to feel completely exhausted after listening to an album, but this was one of the toughest I’ve ever had to get through. I had to stop four or five times just to regain the energy to continue. It felt like a fever dream with almost torturous intent. I am more than convinced that this is some sort of a sick joke that has a niche community of people that are on it and praise it as high art. The joke goes that this is a brilliant album but to understand it you have to give it multiple listens. I suppose that's when you receive your invitation and can start pushing others to endure what you had endured. It could also be "Finnegans Wake" of music - likely meaningful to some, but completely impenetrable to me. I highly doubt I will ever ever listen a single note from Mr. Beffheart and his entourage. The lack of structure isn't even the problem. The musicians are clearly talented and it shows but all of them are intentionally playing a completely different thing with no solder to keep it coherent. I am sure that this was done to piss people off. I don't have any favorite songs because nothing here can be classified as a song. I will pick the last one because it meant that I had endured and because the title resonated with the feat of my achievement - "Veteran's Day Poppy".

32 - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica - Rating = 1 What the hell is this? A chaophony of noise and non-sense and unstructured making of sounds that do not go together… This is horrible. Why was this ever recorded? Who ever wanted to hear this? Wow… this is not music as much as an assault to the ear. Zero. Point. Zero.

**An ok album

8/10

3.5

This album is no longer on Spotify. I had to find it on YouTube.

Ok, usually not into the experimental stuff, but I kind of dug the music. I could have done without the skits or interludes. 3/5

Honestly is there a score less than one. One of the most awful sounding and over rated bands of all time.

Too weird but frownland rips

An abomination, and easily one of the worst “classic” albums I’ve ever endured. Barely managed 3 tracks and gave up.

Interesting.

I like experimental stuff, but this was pretty rough at times. I feel like this set a path for other artists to follow later, showed that they did not have to necessarily constrict themselves to the confines of traditional rock schemes. Definitely a 'Fuck the Norms and Be Yourself' vibe.

When I was 19 and in film school, I was pissed off at the- what I called- “cookie-cutter” artists my cohort championed, which was basically anything 2000s indie-hipster chic. I was also quite a contrarian, a combination which pushed me into absurd niches of music in search of the “real” art that wasn’t getting representation. That included Captain Beefheart. Nowadays I get that my contrarianism was dumb and made me miss out on some great music, but I’m also grateful to have discovered Captain Beefheart, because he taught me that you can just slice yourself open and let your weird out, and fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke. Or, in brief, Captain Beefheart taught me about artistic integrity.

Was für eine grauenhafte Erfahrung. Meine Ohren weinten, mein leichtes Herz wurde schwer und meine Versuche, dieses Album manuell von YouTube zu löschen sorgte nur für blutende Finger. Kein Wunder, dass kein Streaming-Anbieter diese Perle der unmittelbaren Kunst des Folterns im Angebot hat. Bitte nie wieder und setzt dieses Album auf Platz 1002!

There is no number for this album.

Fuck off, just fuck right off. Absolute dog shit. It’s not even on Apple Music it’s that bad. Had to listen to (some of) it on YouTube. Couldn’t finish it. The guy from the simpsons is just having a laugh at anyone who’s trying to listen to it 7 times

1 Star 2/15)

I gave it a try, but i really cannot say that i see the genius here. Slightly different rhythms accompanied by complete atonality just don’t do anything for me. I recognize it takes effort to be this bad.

Sadly couldn’t listen on Spotify. Only copy was a very spotty you tube version

More Moonlight on Vermont, less Hair Pie. Genuinely struggled to finish this, but there's worse on this list. Like Kid Rock. Fuck 'im.

If I were to come into music class and claim to have practiced every day all day and then play this, the teacher would beat me to death before the end of the first track.

🥸

There is no way that anyone actually.. truthfully enjoys this.. wtf

Can I give this a 0? Please.

So ridiculous and I love it. Made me laugh out loud a couple of times (in the best way)

Yes, this is Beefheart's masterpiece, it's one of the greatest experimental expressions of the sixties, & a touchstone for any & all of us who opt for a history of blues music vis-a-vis a turning-inside-out of that genre. I love Led Zeppelin, I really do, but this puts to shame the notion that they were 'blues historians,' that they took the blues & put their own spin on it. THIS is the blues so finely tuned that it's got no choice but to be different, to be a big slice of strangeness, to be 'avant-garde.' It's also a free jazz record, w/ all the energy, electricity & humor of Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, or Joe Harriott. 'A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast & bulbous. Got me?' You goddamn right I listen to this unironically. It's fucking great.

Here is a hugely controversial but classic album, that has been the subject of many thinkpieces. It sounds ugly, discordant, dissonant, and like the people involved have no clue what they're doing. But is that the case? No, if course not. This is a group of very accomplished musicians, perfectly capable of producing up to standard material. So why did they make it intentionally sound "bad"? Well, "bad" is in the eye of the beholder. I would say this is one of the first instances of the true avant-garde ethos appearing in rock music. Unlike something like The Shaggs, which sounds "bad" accidentally and has been hailed as an experimental hidden gem, Beefheart and Co. actually intended their songs to sound this way. And I would say that requires a lot more skill than playing it straight, even. These songs sound off in very specific ways. They still sound like discernable songs with structure and recognizable melodies, but they were put through an uncanny valley filter. And the fact this is also so long of an album is part of the artistic statement. It's almost as if the record is daring you to turn it off. No wonder it has been cited as an influence by many musicians down the line. And the fact that it still sounds out-there all these years later is a testament to the skill of everyone involved. Intimidating and difficult, yes, but unlike anything else. Key tracks: Frownland Ella Guru Moonlight on Vermont When Big Joan Sets Up Ant Bee Man Veteran's Day Poppy

wtf was this

I did it! Not as tedious as some of the garbage I had to suffer through on this list, and at least they sound like shit on purpose. 2.5

huh

Its like eating a lemon. If you don't know what a lemon is you're not going to like it. But sometimes its like...yeah I could eat a lemon rn

I like Captain Beefheart, I like the art concept of this album. Not great for Saturday night listening though

Captain Beefheart is just such a name. Imagine my surprise to find not one but two albums from him on this list. Easy album, but the music just didn't grab my attention.

I bet this really freaked out the squares, man.

Having this album as the first album really ruins all credibility for the entire 1001 albums. I'm sure I'll say it again at some point with this list but this is one of the most unlistenable things I've ever heard. Captain Beefheart went to high school with Frank Zappa, they are both weird, Zappa got all of the talent.

Step 1: See this is described as "challenging" Step 2: Start listing and realize that this is indeed very challenging Step 3: See that it's a double album Step 4: Survive listening to it in its entirety Step 5: Get the tiniest bit of solace by rating it 1 star

Not for me at all.

5.0 (78:51, 28 tracks some are interludes and instrumentals, 3rd album, 1969) Experimental rock (1968) Trout Mask Replica (1969) Lick My Decals Off, Baby ****Facts about TMR (Trout Mask Replica)**** - They meticulously rehearsed this album 14 hours a day for eight months and recorded it in 6 hours. This is amazing as I assumed it was recorded in 1 hour, 18 minutes, and 51 seconds. - I’ve never wanted to punch Robert Dimery in the face more than right now - I completely and totally unfairly prejudged this album by the cover and assume it would sound terrible – I was shocked and amazed that it sounded exactly like I assumed it would - This album saved my dad’s life, when he was in a deep coma and the medical staff was trying to convince us to pull the plug I played this album on Spotify, my dad got up and smashed my phone - Captain Beefheart wrote all the songs on the piano, he didn’t know how to play piano - When I crank this album my neighbors bang on my walls – I assume they are playing along - If you don’t think this is one of the greatest albums ever recorded, there is something wrong with you. If you do think this is one of the greatest albums ever recorded, there is something wrong with you. - When I cover this album flawlessly at Guitar Center, they ask me to leave - This is what classical musicians hear when you play jazz - If you ask Alexa to play Trout Mask Replica, she will tell you to go fuck yourself - The only album Chuck Noris bought twice - For people that love to play in 6.197/ 291 time signature, this is your album - I used to use drugs when I listened to this album, I still do, but I used to too - This album makes me feel emotions that don’t exist - If you don’t get this album, you’re like a squid, fast and bulbous and eating dough in a polyethylene bag - “My favorite album,” Abraham Lincoln - If a gang of dangerous looking kids are in my path, I make sure I turn this up really loud as I walk through them - Matt Groening (of the Simpsons) says you must listen to this album at least seven times to get it - When my kids ask me what the hell this is, I tell them it’s The Beatles - The only band to ever cover this album meticulously was all under the age of 7 - I was laughing so hard listening to this album the first time, I vomited on the trail in Peck Park Trout Mask Replica is the third studio album by the American band Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, released as a double album on June 16, 1969, by Straight Records. The music was composed by Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) and arranged by drummer John "Drumbo" French. Combining elements of R&B, garage rock, and blues with free jazz and avant-garde composition, the album is regarded as an important work of experimental rock. Its unconventional musical style, which includes polyrhythm and polytonality, has given the album a reputation as one of the most challenging recordings in the 20th century musical canon. Produced by Frank Zappa, Whitney Studios in Glendale, California, following eight months of intense rehearsals at a small rented communal house in Los Angeles. The lineup of the Magic Band at this time consisted of Bill "Zoot Horn Rollo" Harkleroad and Jeff "Antennae Jimmy Semens" Cotton on guitar, Mark "Rockette Morton" Boston on bass guitar, Victor "The Mascara Snake" Hayden on bass clarinet, and John "Drumbo" French on drums and percussion. Beefheart played several brass and woodwind instruments, including saxophone, musette, and natural horn, and contributed most of the vocal parts, while Zappa and members of the band provided occasional vocals and narration. The well-rehearsed Magic Band recorded all instrumental tracks for the album in a single six-hour recording session; Beefheart's vocal and horn tracks were laid down over the next few days. Trout Mask Replica sold poorly upon its initial release in the United States, where it failed to appear in any charts. It was more successful in the United Kingdom, where it spent a week at number 21 on the UK Albums Chart. Trout Mask Replica has been widely regarded as the masterpiece of Beefheart's musical career, as well as an important influence on many subsequent artists. It was ranked number 60 on Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and has appeared on the "best of" lists of many other publications. In 2010, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band had a history of difficult relationships with record labels. A&M Records released the band's first single, a cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy", but dropped the contract after their first two singles failed to produce hits. Buddah Records released the band's (and the label's) first album, Safe as Milk, in 1967. However, the label began specializing in bubblegum pop, a style in which Captain Beefheart had no place, and the band again found themselves without a record label. In late 1967 and the spring of 1968, they had several sets of re-recording sessions for what became the albums Strictly Personal and Mirror Man. However, due to contractual uncertainties, they were unsure if the material would ever be released. Around this time, Van Vliet's high school friend Frank Zappa started his own record labels Bizarre and Straight, and offered Captain Beefheart, a name Zappa had given him, the opportunity to record an album with complete artistic freedom. Victor Hayden (aka The Mascara Snake) playing bass clarinet. In preparation, the band rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in a small rented house in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Van Vliet implemented his vision by asserting complete artistic and emotional domination of his musicians. At various times, one or another of the band members were put "in the barrel", with Van Vliet berating him continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission to Van Vliet. According to John French and Bill Harkleroad, these sessions often included physical violence. French described the situation as "cultlike", and a visiting friend said that "the environment in that house was positively Manson-esque". Their material circumstances also were dire. With no income other than welfare and contributions from relatives, the band survived on a bare subsistence diet. French recounted living on no more than a small cup of soybeans a day for a month, and at one point, band members were arrested for shoplifting food (whereupon Zappa bailed them out). A visitor described their appearance as "cadaverous" and said that "they all looked in poor health". Band members were restricted from leaving the house and practiced for fourteen or more hours a day. Van Vliet once told drummer John French that he himself had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and he would see nonexistent conspiracies that explained this behavior. Zappa originally proposed to record the album as an "ethnic field recording" in the house where the band lived. Working with Zappa and engineer Dick Kunc, the band recorded some provisional backing tracks at the Woodland Hills house, with sound separation obtained simply by having different instruments in different rooms. Zappa thought these provisional recordings turned out well, but Van Vliet became suspicious that Zappa was trying to record the album on the cheap and insisted on using a professional studio. Zappa would say of Van Vliet's approach that it was "impossible to tell him why things should be such and such a way. It seemed to me that if he was going to create a unique object, that the best thing for me to do was to keep my mouth shut as much as possible and just let him do whatever he wanted to do whether I thought it was wrong or not." "Hair Pie: Bake 1", one of the tracks recorded by Zappa and Kunc at the house, appeared on the finished album. Three other tracks on the album were recorded on a cassette recorder at the house, the a cappella poems "The Dust Blows Forward 'n The Dust Blows Back" and "Orange Claw Hammer", and the improvised blues "China Pig" with former Magic Band member Doug Moon accompanying Van Vliet on guitar. "The Blimp" was recorded by Zappa in his studio while on the phone with Van Vliet prior to the album's sessions; Jeff Cotton was put on the phone to recite Van Vliet's latest poem, which Zappa recorded and put over a Mothers of Invention backing track (which had been known to the Mothers, uncredited on Trout Mask's credits, as "Charles Ives"). When they entered the studio, the band completed twenty instrumental tracks in a single six-hour recording session. Van Vliet spent the next few days overdubbing the vocals. Instead of singing while monitoring the instrumental tracks over headphones, he heard only the slight sound leakage through the studio window. As a result, the vocals are only vaguely in sync with the instrumental backing; when asked later about synchronization, he remarked, "That's what they do before a commando raid, isn't it?" Van Vliet used the ensuing publicity, particularly with a 1970 Rolling Stone interview with Langdon Winner, to promulgate a number of myths which were subsequently quoted as fact. Winner's article stated, for instance, that neither Van Vliet nor the members of the Magic Band ever took drugs, but Harkleroad and French later discredited this. Van Vliet also claimed to have taught both Harkleroad and Mark Boston from scratch; in fact, the pair were already accomplished musicians before joining the band. Van Vliet also took complete credit for composition and arranging, a claim that band members strongly disputed in later years. According to Van Vliet, all of the songs on the album were written in a single eight-hour session. Band members have stated that two of the songs ("Moonlight on Vermont" and "Sugar 'n Spikes") were written around December 1967, while "Veteran's Day Poppy" was written around late May or early June 1968. Most of the rest were composed over a period of several months in the summer and fall of 1968 in an unprecedented process of experimentation. One influence on the compositional process was a tape that Van Vliet's friend Gary Marker had played for him. Marker, an aspiring recording engineer, was learning how to splice audio tape. He practiced by combining sections of various recordings so that they would join smoothly and maintain a consistent beat despite being from different sources. When Van Vliet heard the tape, he said excitedly, "That's what I want!" Van Vliet used a piano, an instrument he had never played before, as his main compositional tool. Since he had no experience with the piano and no conventional musical knowledge at all, he was able to experiment with few preconceived ideas of musical form or structure. Van Vliet sat at the piano until he found a rhythmic or melodic pattern that he liked. John French then transcribed this pattern, typically only a measure or two long, into musical notation. After Van Vliet was finished, French would piece these fragments together into compositions, reminiscent of the splicing together of disparate source material on Marker's tape. French decided which part would be played on which instrument and taught each player his part, although Van Vliet had the final say over the ultimate shape of the product. Band member Bill Harkleroad has remarked on "how haphazardly the individual parts were done, worked on very surgically, stuck together, and then sculpted afterwards". Once completed, each song was played in exactly the same way every time, eschewing improvisation. French has stated that about three-quarters of the songs were composed at the piano. The rest mostly consisted of parts that were whistled by Van Vliet. In a few cases, part of the song was composed at the piano while others were whistled. Three of the pieces were unaccompanied vocal solos ("Well", "The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back", and "Orange Claw Hammer") while one was a spontaneous improvisation ("China Pig"). "Bills Corpse" was titled for the emaciated condition that Bill Harkleroad suffered before leaving an LSD cult to join the band, and possibly to similar conditions Van Vliet created within the band's house. Van Vliet called the song "Dali's Car" a "study in dissonance". "Hobo Chang Ba" was based on Van Vliet's stories "as a young teenager in Mojave of going down and hanging with the hobos. He said they were really nice people and he got to know the regulars." French states that "Old Fart at Play" "was never intended to have these lyrics. This is the only other time I saw Zappa aggressively put on his 'producer's hat' and assert his will on Don. The original title to this song was 'My Business Is the Truth, Your Business Is a Lie'." The album's title was adapted from some lines in "Old Fart at Play": ". . . the nose of the wooden mask / Where the holes had just been uh moment ago / Was now smooth amazingly blended camouflaged in / With the very intricate rainbow trout replica." Several of the compositions include brief passages from other songs. Some were childhood reminiscences, such as Gene Autry's recording "El Rancho Grande", from which one of the guitar lines in "Veteran's Day Poppy" was adapted, or the "Shortnin' Bread" melody used in "Pachuco Cadaver". Others were more contemporary, such as the quote "come out to show dem [them]" from Steve Reich's "Come Out" used in "Moonlight on Vermont", or a melodic fragment from the Miles Davis recording of Concierto de Aranjuez used as the basis for the bridge of "Sugar 'n Spikes". The ending of "Moonlight on Vermont" also includes the refrain from the spiritual "Old-Time Religion". A nonmusical influence was the art of Salvador Dalí; the instrumental "Dali's Car" was inspired by the band's viewing of an installation of Dalí's Rainy Taxi. Trout Mask Replica is considered to be Captain Beefheart's magnum opus, and has appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time. BBC disc jockey John Peel said of the album, "If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work." Peel later ranked the record as the best pop album ever made. Lester Bangs, in his original review for Rolling Stone in 1969, hailed the album as "a total success, a brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of [Captain Beefheart's] art", and said that, on "a purely verbal level", it is "an explosion of maniacal free-association incantations". Years later, he wrote that "it was not even 'ahead' of its time in 1969. Then and now, it stands outside time, trends, fads, hypes, the rise and fall of whole genres eclectic as walking Christmas trees, constituting a genre unto itself: truly, a musical Monolith if ever there was one." Steve Huey of AllMusic lauded the album as "stunningly imaginative", and wrote that its influence "was felt more in spirit than in direct copycatting, as a catalyst rather than a literal musical starting point. However, its inspiring reimagining of what was possible in a rock context laid the groundwork for countless experiments in rock surrealism to follow, especially during the punk/new wave era." Artists such as Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh and the B-52s cited the album as an influence. The Guardian called the album "the standard by which almost all experimental rock music is judged, its reputation as a fearsomely difficult listen undimmed by the passing of time or its influence." The album's unconventional nature often alienates new listeners. Cartoonist and writer Matt Groening tells of listening to Trout Mask Replica at the age of fifteen: "I thought it was the worst thing I'd ever heard. I said to myself, they're not even trying! It was just a sloppy cacophony. Then I listened to it a couple more times, because I couldn't believe Frank Zappa could do this to me – and because a double album cost a lot of money. About the third time, I realized they were doing it on purpose; they meant it to sound exactly this way. About the sixth or seventh time, it clicked in, and I thought it was the greatest album I'd ever heard". The Signal's John Henry wrote in 1969 that the listeners will either love or hate it, "with no middle ground", while journalist Will Smith, writing in the Omaha World-Herald in the same year, found that the album "becomes quite listenable after the initial shock" but was "not for the weak listener". John Harris of The Guardian later discussed the idea that the album requires several listens to "get it", concluding it still sounded "awful" after six listens. Critic Robert Christgau, in his 1969 "Consumer Guide" for The Village Voice, said that its "weirdness" prevented him from granting it a higher grade, but called it "very great played at high volume when you're feeling shitty, because you'll never feel as shitty as this record". In 2003, Rolling Stone stated that "On first listen, Trout Mask Replica sounds like raw Delta blues", with Beefheart "singing and ranting and reciting poetry over fractured guitar licks. But the seeming sonic chaos is an illusion ... Tracks such as 'Ella Guru' and 'My Human Gets Me Blues' are the direct predecessors of modern musical primitives such as Tom Waits and PJ Harvey". In 2000, it was voted number 50 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. He stated "This record is living proof of his bizarre genius." In 2003, the album was ranked at number 59 by Rolling Stone in their list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and it was ranked number 60 on the 2012 revision of the list: In his 1995 book The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross placed the album at number two on his list of "10 Classic Alternative Albums". In 1995, Mojo put the album at number 28 on their "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" list and at number 51 on their list of "The 100 Records That Changed the World". Writer Al Spicer called it "in many ways the ultimate blues album, conveying intense experiences under intense pressure". The A.V. Club called it an "avant-garde masterpiece." Entertainment Weekly called it "an astonishing, influential onslaught of avant-garde blues that still reveals fresh lunatic nuances on the umpteenth listen." Academic Langdon Winner referred to it as "the most astounding and important work of art ever to appear on a phonograph record". On April 6, 2011, the album was added to the United States National Recording Registry for the year 2010 by the Library of Congress. On January 13, 2012, as part of its "Inside the National Recording Registry" series, the public radio program Studio 360 broadcast a tribute to the album featuring drummer John French, biographer Mike Barnes, and Beefheart devotee Waits. Filmmaker David Lynch called Trout Mask Replica his favorite album of all time, and John Lydon has also listed it as one of the albums that shaped him, arguing: "It was anti-music in the most interesting and insane way ... all the bum notes I was being told off for by the teachers were finally being released by well-known artists. That was my confirmation. From then on, there was room for everything."[58] Guitar virtuoso Steve Vai also praised the album and admitted that the first time he heard it, he was appalled by how out of tune the album was and by Van Vliet's vocals, but after meeting him, he gave the album another chance and compared it to "a liberation". In an October 1991 interview with Guitar Player magazine, when asked about his influences, guitarist John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers said, "the most important inspiration is undoubtedly Zoot Horn Rollo's playing on Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. If I listen to it first thing in the morning, I'm assured of a day of unbridled creativity." Track listing All tracks are written by Don Van Vliet and arranged by John French. 1. "Frownland" 1:41 2. "The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back" 1:53 3. "Dachau Blues" 2:21 4. "Ella Guru" 2:26 5. "Hair Pie: Bake 1" (instrumental) 4:58 6. "Moonlight on Vermont" 3:59 7. "Pachuco Cadaver" 4:40 8. "Bill's Corpse" 1:48 9. "Sweet Sweet Bulbs" 2:21 10. "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish" 2:25 11. "China Pig" 4:02 12. "My Human Gets Me Blues" 2:46 13. "Dali's Car" (instrumental) 1:26 14. "Hair Pie: Bake 2" (instrumental) 2:23 15. "Pena" 2:33 16. "Well" 2:07 17. "When Big Joan Sets Up" 5:18 18. "Fallin' Ditch" 2:08 19. "Sugar'n Spikes" 2:30 20. "Ant Man Bee" 3:57 21. "Orange Claw Hammer" 3:34 22. "Wild Life" 3:09 23. "She's Too Much for My Mirror" 1:40 24. "Hobo Chang Ba" 2:02 25. "The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)" 2:04 26. "Steal Softly thru Snow" 2:18 27. "Old Fart at Play" 1:51 28. "Veteran's Day Poppy" 4:31 Personnel Musicians Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) – lead and backing vocals, spoken word, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, musette, simran horn, hunting horn, jingle bells, producer (uncredited), engineer (uncredited) Drumbo (John French) – drums, percussion, engineer (uncredited on the original release), arrangement (uncredited) Antennae Jimmy Semens (Jeff Cotton) – guitar, "steel appendage guitar" (slide guitar using a metal slide), lead vocals on "Pena" and "The Blimp", "flesh horn" (voice with hand cupped over mouth) on "Ella Guru", speaking voice on "Old Fart at Play" Zoot Horn Rollo (Bill Harkleroad) – guitar, "glass finger guitar" (slide guitar using a glass slide), flute on "Hobo Chang Ba" Rockette Morton (Mark Boston) – bass guitar, narration on "Dachau Blues" and "Fallin' Ditch" The Mascara Snake (Victor Hayden) – bass clarinet, backing vocals on "Ella Guru", speaking voice on "Pena" Additional personnel Doug Moon – acoustic guitar on "China Pig" Gary "Magic" Marker – bass guitar on "Moonlight on Vermont" and "Veteran's Day Poppy" (uncredited) Roy Estrada – bass guitar on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Arthur Tripp III – drums and percussion on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Don Preston – piano on "The Blimp" (uncredited) Ian Underwood – alto saxophone on "The Blimp" (uncredited/inaudible) Bunk Gardner – tenor saxophone on "The Blimp" (uncredited/inaudible) Buzz Gardner – trumpet on "The Blimp" (uncredited/inaudible) Frank Zappa – speaking voice on "Pena" and "The Blimp" (uncredited); engineer (uncredited); producer Richard "Dick" Kunc – speaking voice on "She's Too Much for My Mirror" (uncredited); engineer Cal Schenkel – album design

This one can work if you don’t focus on it too closely, like Spy vs Spy or EDM

Can’t find this anywhere but based on other reviews, looks like I’m not missing anything

pleasantly not on spotify for me

Horrible

Worst music I have heard in my whole life. 0 stars.

A record for contrarians. And reader, I'm one of them. I can find beauty in noise, distortion, some dissonance...and yes this.

It’s just noise???

perhaps these guys are geniuses at the top of their game but I didn't enjoy this at all

I respect this thing for what it is but man an hour and 18 minutes is pushing it. That's probably part of the point now that I think about it.

he he he. Yes, yes, yes, we all need to hear this just once in our lives...

I’ve tried. It’s too weird for me.

The artwork kinda makes me sick. Also, only Hair Pie: Bake 1 is on Spotify and it's discordantly unfun. I will not be seeking out the rest of this album. I get it's a commentary on the mainstream, highly polished pop and rock music norms of the 1960s. I also get that it deconstructs the traditional conventions of blues, rock, and pop. I know that it has an anti-commercial statement. I don't care that John Peel and Lester Bangs think that this album is incredible. I don't and that's all that counts when it really comes down to it.

A record for contrarians. And reader, I'm not one of them. I can find beauty in noise, distortion, some dissonance... but not this.

p157. 169. 1.5 stars Prime example of late 60s wankage. It's the musical equivalent of the curates egg, good in parts. When he sticks to southern blues, it's fine. When he doesn't, it's crap. Points deducted for being a double album, unavailable on Spotify, too much filler, and for weirdness above and beyond the call of duty.

This one feels like visiting an old friend. A weird, reclusive, bizarre old friend who speaks like they heard the actual voice of god during an acid trip but also has a decent sense of humor about it. What's amazing now is catching the patterns and the rhythms more now - this isn't a totally free experiment, it's carefully concocted, and when you sit with it a bit you find you're not so much getting blasted with noise as being compelled to groove to the weirdest rhythm section ever. It is a beast and probably better not consumed all at once. This is rich decadent music and dada wrapped into one, but damned if it isn't brilliant and beautiful.

.25 - I hate this so much and couldn't wait for it to be over.

# Album Name: Trout Mask Replica # Artist: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band # Rating: 1/5 # Comments: Faaaaaaaarrrrrrrkkkkkkk MEEEEEEEEE Well i knew the album cover. Its quite iconic. Honestly, this was a train wreck of a record. Absolutely woeful. # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? Fuck no

horrible wtf

most interesting listen yet from this list. shows you what music can be and hints at what it should be. funky stuff.

Couldn’t listen too it

nein, das geht gar nicht!

You know, when even Frank Zappa is like "the fuck you doin?", you know you got something weird. It's intense to listen to this in one sitting but it's basically the foundation of mathcore.

Uhhhhhhh idk man

I am aware that this album is revered by many, I really tried listening to it but it was ellusive. I just couldnt connect with it. I love Capt Beefheart and have several other albums but this one may take a few goes to get it

Occasional offbeat blues sequences kept me from hating this as much as some other stuff on here but intentionally bad is still bad

The full spectrum on show here: Drums are showcasing cocaine because you need laser focus to keep these sycophantic rhythms Guitars are on some sort of acid the way they go on these shaggy dog walks The rest of the instrumentalists must have been on some sort of methamphetamine as a treat And the singer is simply huffing his own farts. Fast and bulbous.

The album wasn’t available to stream so I listened to the 10 most listened songs I like it but I’m not sure I’ll listen to it on my own again

took me 5 mins to stop listening to it, which is probably longer than it took them to come up with the music for this album

Sadly the moments where the instruments stopped were just as bad.

Couldn't do it to myself. I tried listening to this awhile back... maybe one day I will build the courage to grit through this. I liken it to a blender, tolerable for a few seconds but you don't want to leave it on for longer than that

This wasn’t for me

interesting

Not going to pretentious enough to pretend this is a masterpiece, because it sounds like absolute shit, let's be honest. At the same time it's pretty fun to listen to and sometimes the intrumentals are really good.

Frownland - 2.5/5 The Dust Blows Forward'n'the Dust Blows Back - 1/5 Dachau Blues - 2.5/5 Ella Guru - 2/5 Hair Pie: Bake 1 - 1.5/5 Pachuco Cadaver - 3/5 Sweet Sweet Bulbs - 3.5/5 Neon Meat - 3/5 China Pig - 2/5 My Human Gets Me Blue - 1/5 Dali's Car - 1.5/5 Hair Pie: Bake 2 - 2/5 Well, Well, Well - 1/5 When Big Joan Sets Up - 1.5/5 Sugar'n Spikes - 2.5/5 Orange Claw Hammer - 2.5/5 She's Too Much For My Mirror - 2/5 Hobo Chang Ba - 2/5 The Blimp - 2/5 Steal Softly Through Snow - 1.5/5 Old Fart At Play - 1.5/5 Veterans Day Poppy - 3/5

not worth the hype imo

Huh...so that just happened.

Worst thing I've ever heard

nope

I bought this years ago because someone told me it was “good”. I can’t remember who I need to “thank”. I understand that this album polarizes people. Personally, I think the issue is where I may mutter “keep to a time signature, you gits”, others will say “ahh polyrhythm” and while I may complain about whether this can actually be called music due to no good tunes, others may happily wax lyrical about polytonality. It worries me that the hype for this album is at such a high level that it reminds me of the old tale of the emperor’s new clothes. Is it good? or is that people think because it is challenging it must be arty? It has even been compared as eclectic as walking Christmas trees and, like this album, that is not something I need thanks.

Undeniably a challenging listen and left me a bit exhausted after an hour. However, it is such a strong artistic statement, and still such an incredible UFO in music history. Very glad I experienced it, and I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.

Wow. Sært. Ikke hørt ordentligt. Kan man det? Jeg er nysgerrig på hvordan sådan et album kan eksistere. -- Fåk jeg skulle have anmeldt det den dag vi fik albummet... Den er svær at komme tilbage til! Jeg kan kun sige at den fortjener sin 1er for oplevelsen. Jeg piner nok lige mig selv igennem endnu et lyt....

Et album jeg har set frem til og frygtet på en gang. Det er faktisk ikke helt så avantgarde som jeg havde troet. I sine gode øjeblikke minder det lidt om Tom Waits. Desværre er det som om Kaptajnen og hans magiske band har en dyb avation mod det melodiøse, og derfor forsøger at ødelægge det hver gang der. kunne opstå den mindste melodi. Nogle albums er lavet for lytterne. Det her virker som om det er lavet for musikerne selv. Det er uden tvivl vigtigt for musikhistorien. Men behageligt er det ikke. Jeg kunne kun finde en Youtube video af det med hvad der lyder som bops og huller i lyden. Det siger meget om det her album at jeg faktisk var i tvivl om det var fejl i afspilningen eller meningen at det skulle lyde sådan. Jeg er stadig ikke 100% sikker.

PRETTY GOAT - DI

Chaos-Schrepel-Blues, 1969 -> 1

Why would anyone choose to listen to this? There are no redeeming qualities other than it being eccentric, which is not near enough for me.

Definitely the ultimate example of musical marmite. Experimental, avant and for many impenetrable. I confess to rather liking it and understanding why Frank Zappa chose to promote Don Van Villet. John Peel would also agree……this is now 57 years old and we don't hear this level of creativity and imagination in popular music now. Highly entertaining stuff, but did it need to be a double……?

listened to before not for me

It was an interesting sound, not that enjoyable to listen to tho

Awful

Garbage sounds

Wonderfully weird

Absolute chaos, hated it wildly at first but found myself tapping my foot a couple of times when they deign to play instruments. Giving this an extra star from my initial review but pretty sure it's because I developed some kind of Stockholm Syndrome by the end.

Not technically on Spotify. People made a complication of the album - a playlist Could not find 1 song that was listenable I did have 1 liked song from another album by this band that I liked called 'm glad. I wish they had continued to make music like that song. This album was terrible

This is an album you more experience than listen too. It's easy to judge someone by their opinion of this album.

Interesting! Different

A fucking weird, weird ride but one I'll take again with the proper substances. Not easy, challenging at every turn, but somehow worth it. And I listen to this the day after a fucking Peter Gabriel album?

Not sure how to put this listening experience into words… chaotic, felt attacked by the first track but then it calmed down a bit (just a bit though!)… two stars as I imagine there is a lot in the lyrics to explore - definitely heard reference to Dachau, blimps and spam…

Thought fragments suit such a purposefully disjointed album. “Pachucho Cadaver” is a way in, long enough to force the realisation that the band are playing together, that the cacophony coheres, there’s rhythm, conversation and intention, you can dance. “Big Joan Sets Up” is similar, it swings. The outro that begins around 1:40 into “Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish” could be treated as another key to the record, a tumultuous, intricate cauldron of guitar and horn that move around each other like the bodies of an orrery, relationships hard to grasp on contact. One could pick most moments on this record and describe them as such. Yet “Dali’s Car” is straightforwardly beautiful. Beefheart’s voice is pagan godlike. He sings like he is not listening to his band; this too is technique, as well as fair representation of the man. This record sounds as clean as the band were surely smelly when they recorded it: every instrument distinct, a rare record where the band can jump out of a phone’s tinny speakers and reassemble themselves in the air without losing a member. The tracks are a band effort, as well as the product of an abusive relationship. That I still love the record while knowing how erratic, controlling and cruel Van Vliet was to the comrades who turned his whistles and crude piano sketches into this turbulent machine is testament to its sorcery. Has any other recording married the frenzy of free jazz to blues so effectively? But really you should listen to “Bat-Chain Puller” etc etc.

Hands up, I'll admit I have never made it through this whole album before. People used to put it on during long trips in a tour bus, but it would never survive very long. Pleased to report that it's as unhinged as its origin story portends, with some memorable bangers scattered throughout - "Hair Pie" has the vibe of "Astral Weeks" during a psychotic break, and "Moonlight on Vermont" sounds like someone took an axe to "Last Train To Clarksville". As a melody wuss, "Clear Spot" is my Beefheart of choice, but this was a lot of fun. Youngest quite enjoyed it, surprisingly, observing that it was the craziest music possible to make before the invention of the synthesizer (astute!). Loved the cover photo too.

marto 1 simgera irtveboda da isic bushtis chyapunis xma qonda

This was garbage. Pure garbage.

Bruh am I trippin out over here.

Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica. I've listened to this numerous times over the years and find that it really depends on my mood and mindset how I feel about it. Some days it's a 1, some it's a 5.

Wild

1 - TERRIBLE

Well this was a ride to listen to. I don't know how to review it but one thing is for sure that it belongs to this 1001 album list.

If you have to listen to something 7 times for it to be good. Its not good. I was waiting for this album to end and when I looked down and saw that I was only 30 minutes in, I had to call it.

You're not going to believe me, but I really enjoyed this album. It's fun, funny, spikey and spans musical genres in a fascinating way.

No need for this album to be so wild. So many better Captain Beefheart albums where they at least mix in some actual tunes with the experimental stuff.....

I like a couple of Captain Beefheart songs but not this album

Too long but love how weird it is

Okay so I think like most people with functioning ears, I was kind of angry about the assignment for the first quarter of this. It gave me the feeling I have when I realize I dropped a spoon in the garbage disposal only after I turned it on, and sounded even worse. I turned the corner of respect by the halfway mark though, and even rounded the bend on liking it by the end. I’m going to take those people who claim you realize it’s the greatest album ever after the half dozenth listen at their word though.

1/5 or can’t review. Sorry this is truly the first one I can’t listen to. I can’t even try more than I have. I am so sorry

Legendary but I don't need it again

surprisingly enjoyable - but still quite tough

This is tight as hell. They probably did not need to rehearse as hard as they at least acted like they did to get this result, but nonetheless. A glorious cacophony of poetry and music somehow over and under structured. Future "noise" rock bands and zappa could only dream and pretend...

Note: listened on YT with no track listing

Well, I hated this.

This was truly innovative and groundbreaking at the time of this release- and still holds a spot as being an important piece of music in history. However, noise- art rock is not for me. So it’s getting a 2.5, rounded up to 3 because Capt Beefheart was a visionary. This is just realllllly hard to get through!

Festering bucket of wank.

completely strange -- glad i listened, but didn't get at all

I'm convinced this is what the US military forced torture victims to listen to at Guantanamo

There were moments

This is an album I’ve always planned to listen to. This is the second time, and the last. Hundreds of ideas but little coherence. Made harder by not being available on Spotify. I’m all for experimentation but as I get older I need melody

I do not get or enjoy this album. But I respect Beefhart and his "break everything" mindset for this album

First album I needed to pull up on Youtube since it's not on Spotify. I didn't like this album. This was a dud.

nie wiem czego wlasnie przesluchalem, ale bylo to jedno z dziwniejszych 80 minut jakie slyszalem, totalnie obskurne nagranie ktorego nie ma co szukac na spotifaju, a jednak ma potezna wiki czy zasluzone miejsce na liscie 1001 albumikow, plyta z 69 bedaca trzecim krazkiem kapitana beefhearta i jego magicznej bandy, jest to rokowanie eksperymentalne, a eksperymentem tutaj byly glownie warunki jego powstania, 8 godzinny maraton zeby napisac 20 kilka trakow, 6 godzin w studio zeby je nagrac, a nastepnego dnia nagrywac do nich wokale na prawie gluchosci, co sprawia ze wydaja sie dziwnie niedopasowane, opoznione, nie na miejscu, nie tylko z powodu lirycznego misz maszu, poza tymi niecodziennymi warunkami dochodzi forma jaka jest tutaj uprawiana rokowanie bluesowe, wokale czesciej niz spiewanie oferuja monologi tak bizzarne, ze nie wiem czego sluchalem i pewnie sie nie dowiem jesli nie znajde jakiejs dobrej transkrupcji calej plyty, bo ciezko ze sluchu sie polapac w czyms takim, zwlaszcza gdy sa jakies utwory na dwa glosy, albo na glos i krzyk, zeby na kolejnym miec cos prawie szantowego, a nastepnie recytacje poetycja totalnie bez instrumentala, nie ma czasu na nude, ale na bardziej normalnych trakach mozna posluchac naprawde muzyki ktora czuc, takimi trakami byly dla mnie spike n sugar czy ant man bee, ktory chyba najlepiej hajlajtuje wykorzystanie saksow na tym albumie, ktore nie sa jedynym niecodziennym dla rokowania i popularnego rokowania instrumentem jaki zostal tutaj wykorzystany, bo sa nawet oboje, traby, dzwonki, klarnety, wiekszosc dziwnosci wnosi pan kapitan, ale na blimpie jest takie nastakowanie detosci, ze slychac prawie orkiestre, a co do beefhearta to niezly gagatek, multiinstrumentalista ktory nie potrafi w nuty i ktos za niego musial aranzowac traki, jakby nie dalo sie jeszcze dodac dziwnosci do tej plyty, to nad produkcja czuwal nie kto inny jak pan zappa, ktory z poczatku chcial zeby to bylo nagrywane w warunkach domowych, takich domowych ze banda byla tak biedna, ze zyli z pieniedzy od rodzicow ktore mialy ledwo starczac na czynsz, a jedzenie bylo trzeba krasc, nie wiem czy wiki jest az tak barwnie napisana, czy serio byly tam az tak dramatyczne sytuacje, ale daly dramatyczny efekt w postaci repliki pstragowej maski, ktora z pewnoscia zostanie w pamieci jako wyjatkowo dziwny a jednoczesnie sluchalny albumik, brak plejkowania bo calosc bylo trzeba szukac na soulseeku

really hard to score this as, conceptually I adore this album and the story behind it. I can't just sit with a cup of tea on a Sunday morning and listen to it though. Going to give it a 5 in that it pushes more people to learn about this album and the musicians behind it more

Looks like this album specifically isn’t on Spotify- But based on what Captain Beefheart there is on Spotify, I can only imagine this album is disgusting.

Does it sound "good" in the traditional sense? No. But I can I nevertheless appreciate its free-spirted, bold, adacious experimentation? Also no.

This has to be a joke

Going to need to check back on this one to see what I'm not getting. Clearly a lot of specific artistic choices being made, but a lot of the album sounds like 4 band members playing completely different songs at the same time.

Impenetrable by reputation, impenetrable in practice.

Woof

A super funky band I don’t know how to think about it. It’s like a weirded slimy cheese, i’m not sure that I’d listen to this as often as the Soft Boys album from yesterday but Captain Beefheart did his thing. Had to split my listening between Youtube and Spotify.-GEMV (01.02.2026)

I’d probably try writing a snarky review about this but honestly nothing I could come up with could possibly compete with the world-class comedians in the comments section of the YouTube video where I was forced to go in order to listen to it because streaming services seem to want nothing to do with it (which, you know, I get it). I genuinely wish I could give it 1 and 5 stars simultaneously. I don’t want to split the difference and give it 3 stars because 3 implies “mid”/“mediocre” and whichever way you slice it that’s the one thing this album ISN’T, but, like, what else can I DO... I feel like I’ve just discovered a secret second axis on the good/bad sliding scale. Final verdict: 3i stars. Now I need to figure out which of the people in my life I’m going to bully into sitting down and listening to this with me for a second time through because I’ve got to do it to/with SOMEBODY

What the hell did I just listen to?!? Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's album Trout Mask Replica isn't some avant garde experiment. It isn't anti-art music to shed light on the pretensiousness of artists of the era. It is crap. Two albums, four sides, 80 minutes of crap. It is noise. It is nonsense. It is stupid. I hated every minute of this album, and couldn't wait for it to be over. Unfortunately for me, it is a super long double album, so it felt like it took forever. I could find no redeeming feature in this utter slog of a listen. I hated myself while I was listening to it. This album doesn't take long to show how completely terrible it is. Maybe it was by the third track, a ditty about Nazi Germany's death camps. Maybe it was the five minute "instrumental" cacophony of noise on track five. Somewhere after the one hour mark, I lost all hope that I could ever hear music again. I thought I should abandon all hope and puncture my own ear drums. I actually sat down and pondered who, in the era that this crime against humanity was published, would have actually taken the time to listen to this album the whole way through side 1, then willingly flip the album over to side two and resume play, then, in some act of sheer audacity, change the record to the second disc, and listen to that entire side of music before making the concious decision that they had to flip the album over to really see how this thing ends up? That wasn't hitting play on an iPod and zoning out. This was actual effort! For this album?! I thought I liked some weird ass stuff. I read the wikipedia article where some interesting people count this album as a masterpiece. I read the opinion that after 7 listens, you really can "get" this album. I can promise you that I will NEVER EVER subject myself to this nonsense another six times to reach any understanding with this. I hated every second of the eighty minutes of this album.

Fast & bulbous! Tight also! Trout Mask Replica er en helt unik størrelse. Free jazz gibberish? Schizophrenic rock? Pretentious atonal plink plonk? Det kan høres sånn ut, men historien sier alle låtene var så godt innøvd at de spilte inn instrumentalen til 20 spor på 6 timer. De 8 månedene før var tilbrakt sammen i et hus som fungerte som et slags institutionalized øvingslokale. Det mytiske rundt skiva er vel så interessant som musikken. Jeg skal innrømme at det er lenge siden jeg har hørt TMR nå. Likvel har jeg hørt den nok til at jeg kan sitere flere av partiene. Frownland spiller i hjernen min minst én gang i måneden. Dachau Blues kan jeg begynne å synge til de mest upassende tider. Oppfant Cpt. Beefheart Tom Waits med den låta? Jeg sier ja. Det er ikke til å komme unna at det er et litt slitsomt album som krever noe av lytteren. Tålmodighet & et åpent sinn er bare toppen av isfjellet. Sliter man, er det ikke verre enn å hekte seg på gitarspillet, så har man en tråd å følge. Jeg vet ikke om det er Antennae Jimmy Semens eller Zoot Horn Rollo som skal ha den største æren, men klimpringa på TMR er GOAT-kaliber. Setter man seg ned og virkelig lytter, er det ingen ting som høres ut som TMR. Skiva er som en fractal hvor man kan zoome lenger & lenger inn i et sonisk landskap som fortsetter å by på variasjoner av seg selv og bringer oppmerksomheten til nye detaljer. Om den er for lang? Det måtte være en dobbel-LP. Galskapen trenger rom til å gro. Give me that ol' time religion.

Jeg tror Safe As Milk og Unconditionally Guaranteed er mer mine kopper med te. Trout Mask Replica ga meg nesten ingenting. Likte ikke alle skitsene, og låtene i mellom switcha mellom å være kjip blues og litt offbeat jazza opplegg som høres ut som en parodi på pretensiøs eksperimentering. Jeg sjekket tiden flere ganger underveis, og det var ikke for å notere meg låtene slik at jeg kunne huske dem til senere.

Wow, this album is fantastic! It's very experimental, and there are so many layers to explore in here as well as a great feeling of freedom that make it feel a very immersive and new experience. I bet there is nothing like that. This is the kind of music to listen to carefully, with attention, that is not easy at first but that, when you get (into) to it and understand it, it is a great listening experience to dive in. There are more accesible songs in here, other much more avant-garde, also acapella ones... All conforming such a masterpiece of an album.

The infamous TMR! I’ve listened to Safe As Milk a few times and enjoy it, but this is apples to donuts. It is not a good album in the conventional definition of “good” music. It’s avant-garde and doesn’t follow any normal song structure. As a double album, it’s absolutely exhausting to listen to. What is impressive, though, is that the band meticulously rehearsed the songs over a period of months. Beefheart essentially tortured the musicians to point of insanity to get the sound he wanted. Then, they recorded the album and it sounds like they just showed up and started jamming incoherently. It’s genuinely marvelous in that sense. Sounding bad on purpose is a lot harder than sounding mediocre. I never want to listen to this again, but I’m glad I did.

I really wanna like Captain Beefheart-and I do musically-but I really struggle with the vocals (2.5)

I figured the reviews for this would all be either 1* or 5*, with mostly the former, because god, it's not forgiving to a quick listen. I mean, I love Captain Beefheart - (came in via the much more accessible The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot) and it still took me years to go from admiring this by proxy, without actually wanting to listen to it much, to thinking it's one of the high points of 20th Century American art, an avant garde, situationist, jazz and blues masterpiece.

i don’t think the spotify link was working bc it took me to a single song, which i listened to. it was so terrible that i wasn’t motivated to seek out the rest of the album

Where to start. Wow . I a have no idea. I was planning to listen to this album for a very long time. And here I unexpectedly did. It's a long thing. But in a way I feel like it's the only way it could work. You have to sink deep into this for it to make some kind of sence. And although it's obviously a very experimental and out there album, it make some fucking sence. You can't deny the groove. The energy of the music here is electric. Above all, it's a tour de force of an incredible vocalist and lyricist. Captain Beefheart,  who knew... What a voice,  what delivery. Just listen to what he does in Moonlight in Vermont. He sounds crazed but wise, and absolutely amazing. Pachuco Cadaver is just as cool as can be. Awesome guitar bass and especially guitar Sugar n spike is an example of how it works so well. What an incredible Track. Sounds like something from an early Richard Dawson album. Wild Life is hilarious and wild as it can be. The closing track, with the transition towards the end,  is the perfect way to finish. An incredible vamp. I really don't know how to renk this thing. I Truly don't. I'm listening to this now for the second time and enjoying even more. Crazy. Is it a five? Yeh, sorry...

OK. We all know this album has a reputation. It's weird. It feels like listening to Tom Waits in the middle of a bad trip. It's out there and lyrically bizarre and the music is all discordant and arhythmic etc. etc. But you know what? This album IS cool. I can listen and I can hear the Tom Waits in it. I can hear some Nick Cave, and some DEVO, and so many other bits and pieces of groups that were influenced by this album. There are even a few tracks I actually liked, whether because the music clicked for me or I just thought what Beefheart and Co. were doing was genuinely funny. I'm not saying that right now I want to rush back to listen again, or to proselytize to the world about how awesome it is. But I think, at least a little bit, that I got it.

Inte riktigt för mig

That's some weird shit man. This isn't noise for the sake of making noise. It's in the same vein of the experimentalists of the 50s like Glass, Reich, and Cage. In Moonlight on Vermont there is a bit of interpolation from Steve Reich's Come Out. Overall, it's a hard listen, but overall, I kinda dig it.

better than expected

Didn’t listen to all of it but very much enjoyed the part that I did

not sure what i am meant to say

536/1001 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑 Not for me

I guess you could call that an album. It was surprisingly more listenable than I had anticipated. I'm not into any form of avant-garde but this piece had its moments. Also, I really dig the cover art.

maybe there's a musical masterpiece towards the end of the album, but there's no way i'm sitting through an hour of this

About what the album cover would suggest: wandering, rambling somewhat jazzy rock

Sounds terrible, I don't care what kind of theories people make up with about this albums. Its not some obscure masterpiece that only the brightest minds comprehend, its just awful. Even admiting that this is a highly advanced exercise on music making, at the end of the day it doesn't sound good and my score evaluates that.

First off, I couldn’t find this album anywhere. Best I could find were playlists people had assembled. So I don’t know how much like the original album it is. Second, I’ve listened to a fair amount of Beefheart but not this one. This one seemed like it was intentionally obnoxious.

Not for me

Should have been on the 1001 albums to avoid before you die. Absolute shite

Phew, that was exhausting. After a lot of effort, I managed to listen to parts of the album. This is exactly the kind of experimental music that I don't understand and that really gets on my nerves. I'm not a musicologist and I don't want to become one. Maybe it's brilliant stuff. I don't enjoy it. I definitely won't be listening to it again. 1/5

Call me pretentious all you want, but I love experimental music. Music that pushes the boundaries of its genre and tries new things while still remaining true to the artist's vision is an incredible experience to listen to. But then you have this. This is the bad side of experimental music. I mean yeah, I can see the argument that it's fun or whatever, but I think that it's far more annoying than it is fun. It's very much just a bunch of guys coming together, randomly playing notes on their instruments for an hour and calling it an album. I know this album isn't meant to be taken seriously, but to be honest I don't think that makes a difference at all. Whether or not I'm listening to this seriously, it still makes me want to rip my ears off regardless.

Någonstans under ytan anar man riktigt duktiga musiker och ibland träder det till och med fram i korta stunder. Men mycket är bara så otroligt uselt, trotsigt och låter så fruktansvärt illa att det inte kan bli tal om ett högre betyg än etta.

5 star album cover (hell I have a mural with it included on my wall) 1.5 star album listening experience.

For some reason Spotify only played 1 song that was 4 minutes long, not the 1 hour 18 minute album I was expecting. This was a relief as those 4 minutes were utter garbage.

pre-listening notes: god dang this look amazing post: very interesting

Nice one

This album has to be so niche because the full album isn’t even on spotify so I am currently listening off a listener-made playlist but most of the tracks seems to line up. This album so far seems to be very conceptual and interesting. I am not exactly sure how to feel about it, but I don’t think I hate it. This is a very long album but I think there are some cool parts occasionally. Seems like good background music that isn’t boring but not distracting either.

This album is so stupid. It sounds like my brother's friends messing around in high school, trying to be experimental, but just being pretentious.

Didn't understand. Like, at all. I truly do not understand. Whole album is 1h10, I stopped after 10 minutes maximum.

I already wasted 1h19min of my life, not wasting another second rating.

Anyone who gives this less than a 5 shouldn’t be using this site 😾

Fucking awful, if liking a modicum of melody or rhythm is a crime then send me to the chair. Despite it being critically acclaimed I can find no merit in this album brief moments where it seems like it might stumble into a cohesive tune are few and far between and never actually come to anything.

I like music that's a bit weird but this is absolutely beyond me. Occasionally it drifts into something that gets me interested but the vast majority is a slog to get through. I presume you need drugs to properly tap into whatever is going on.

There were some absolutely horrible songs. There were some great songs. But it kept me engaged... and difficult one to judge so I'll give it a 3.

I do not get why this is revered. I am sorry but I like things like, melody or identifiable rhythm. 0

It was okay not great. He sounded like a cool dude though

5 for having lead balls to release it. 1 for being actually shit.

Art

Polyrhythm and polytonal sounds are not for me. I'm content with being in a place of not understanding why some people think this album is the best thing they've heard.

Not on Spotify

oh my. Does it all sound like this? So I guess so. Whoever came first, Tom Waits or Captain Beefheart I dont know, but someone owes the other a lot of money. 4 disc?! This sounds lot like Yoko Ono anti-art stuff, but man is this a slog. I am about half way through it and really want to stop. I mean, I get it, "we're breaking all the rules and we're the first to do it", but I just dont understand it. Maybe its a freeform jazz thing, which I appreciate its existence, but why is this so highly regarded? Poems like Orange Claw Hammer were interesting, but it was surrounded by the cacophony of noise.

Welp, this is the first album that has me rethinking this whole thing. 5 stars for being completely unlistenable

I finally got around to my relisten of this. The first time around I didn't think it was as bad as everyone says and gave it a 3. Once the novelty wears off its hard to excuse some of the more eccentric tracks on here. That said, I still don't think its as bad as everyone says; there are some really great moments on here that hark back to "Safe As Milk" which was an incredible blues rock album they released just two years prior to this one.

I wish I liked it since I tend to like abstract art but I really couldn't with this one. I felt so awful for a while after listening to this.

I’m a Spotify user and feel like I’m missing a lot of this album, but what I did hear was 0% for me. It was scratchy and chaotic and not something I get.

Pretentious drivel.

Look. Just because you can play polyrhythms doesn't mean I wanna listen to it

rubbish

As someone who enjoys so much of what this influenced, it's a challenging listen to say the least. Does that mean it should have a "classic" rating? It's the classic album to point to if someone claims they "listen to everything" and you want to put that to the test, sure. But does it need to be in the same conversation as some of the best music ever made? I'm not sure I believe that to be true.

I don't know what to say about this album. I am sort of interpreting it as a parody of everything that you'd usually think of as music. It's deliberately awful in a way that must have taken quite a significant amount of skill. I got to a point while listening where I was actually preferring the more chaotic nonsense to the more traditionally musical bits. Bits made me literally snort with laughter. Bits made me wince. I spent quite a lot of time with my head in my hands. I regularly checked how much of the album I still had to get through. Highlights: - "Ella Guru" - somehow this one went hard. I don't know how or why. - "Hair Pie: Bake 1" - HONK. - "Pena" - I just don't even. - "When Big Joan Sets Up" - this just cracked me up for some reason I can't comprehend. This is without a doubt a 1, but part of me wants to give it a 5. But it's definitely a 1. Like, I literally cannot in good conscience rate it higher than that... but I want to.

Although I only just listened to this two months after I rolled it, I still think it’s amazing I got it a day after Zappa. Love that this has skits basically. The atonality is the hook.

Nog niet geluisterd. Maar klinkt kunstig en daar hou ik wel van.

I think it's ironic that I'm a big fan of abstract visual art, but find the gold standard for abstract musical art absolutely unlistenable. There were a couple of the..."songs"?? on here that I almost found a beat I could grasp onto, but I had to dig through so many layers of discordant nonsense to find them. I have a new least favorite album on this list.

Past all the bullshit, this is a great album. It has consistent lyrical themes, Beautiful poetry, memorable refs, I like how Frank Zappa, Sean‘s in every once in a while to say some crazy shit. The drumming is excellent crazy out of this world. The baselines are rocking. So much feeling in this album. It is a little bit long, and I think the bluesiness Of the whole album becomes grading after a while, but besides being a difficult lesson, there’s so much good stuff in here, I don’t know if you really could cut any. “bad songs “

the only good thing about this album are the youtube comments. worst thing i’ve heard so far

5/100.

I feel like I'm going to say this a lot in this journey. I appreciate the place of this album in music history, but it's just not for me.

Not a fan at all

"Produced by Frank Zappa". That explains it.

Nope!

This is groovy. Vocals are crazy! not sure i like them but it's a vibe album cover also rocks what is this this is....... not good im scared ok dont hate thisAH that was loud and this is loud fast and bulbous! clicking like a barrel of red velvet balls yknow im not a big fan of this honestly, its not very pleasant to listen to is this even music, i mean i get its experimental but it's not good 😭 it's slowing down a bit... we are near the end and it's quieter OH ITS OVER the ending was nice but NOT worth all that

Well this was different. I couldn't listen to it in a day, I need more time.

Band noises

This is such a crazy album. Many artists who later became popular have cited it as one of their biggest influences. I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it, but I have to give lots of credit for breaking the boundaries of conventional pop-rock formula and inspiring others to rethink how rock music can be presented.

Fascinating and a little strange in a kinda nice way.

OK... Sometimes too much drugs IS too much drugs.

I had high hopes, having never heard the album and heard high praise from my music oriented friends. Should've known this is one of the most experimental albums out there, even the bloody producer is a big name. It's too weird, too all over the place and too many of those are places I don't especially like. Not for me.

Pretty chaotic, but unique and interesting for it's time.

какафония составляет примерно 80% альбома

Fast and bulbous vacillating oddness. Greatly grating occasionally endearing

Me no like

Finally got the legend. In the end, I think it's about a 3. It flips between interesting and tedious.

not on spotify

The best part of this album was when it ended.

Fractured, violently angular bursts built from clattering polyrhythmic drums, splintered guitars and bass lines moving in hostile directions, shrieking horns, and vocals hurled as deranged chants, growls, and surreal declamations move this avant-garde rock album like being locked inside a collapsing clock factory where every gear spins to its own logic—overwhelming, abrasive, and perversely deeply aversive in its total rejection of order.

I've seen many people more knowledgeable about music say this was an important and influential album, but I just don't get it. If someone decides to leave the beaten path then they should have an idea of where they are going, not just wander around saying "Look at me, I'm off the beaten path". Overall the album left me feeling that as a listener I was not being taken seriously. Like I said - people wiser than me have disagreed...

We can call it music but it is far, far from enjoyable.

I can't in good conscience give this more than 1 star. I know it's in some people's top 100, etc., but this is not enjoyable and although there's some art to it, it pretty much sucks in my opinion.

This is in the top 10 weirdest things I've ever listened to in my life. Find the entire thing on Youtube.

As a mentally taxing exercise, this album is unlike any other. Not easily accessible, this plays like a musical scavenger hunt for items you didn't know existed. No matter how big and crazy a roller coaster is, the cart follows mostly visable tracks. This album apparently has tracks but they are entirely invisible to the listener. Once you find a groove to attach to, the bottom drops out and leaves a perplexing feeling of "where's my parachute, I want to jump off this thing!" When you start thinking this album is pure crap, keep in mind that it has influenced such musicians as the B-52s, John Frusciante, and Jack white. Since this album exists in a parallel universe, it can be considered a 5 out of 5 bulbous octafish(es).

I’ve had this CD since college and I’m not certain I ever listened to the whole thing more than once before. It’s certainly not background music. You have to actively listen. So that’s what I did while driving yesterday and dammit if that isn’t some crazy creative stuff. It’s nuts that something like this has stayed around and in the zeitgeist for so long. It gets a 5 just for audacity.

Why is it that only the crazy people make 80 minute albums?

Its not music. But it did occasionally make me smile

DNF

Disco esencial, tremendamente influyente (desde Nick Cave o Tom Waits hasta cualquier grupo punk o los RHCP). Eso sí, es duro de escuchar. Blues cavernario, ruido, disonancias, dolor, locura, vanguardia, jazz... Ya la portada es bastante elocuente. Produce otro genio loco como Zappa. Dachau Blues mete un saxo irritante. Ella Guru es lo más agradable de escuchar de todo el disco, junto con Pachuco Cadaver... El disco se hace largo y pesado a veces, no vale para cualquier momento ni día. pero es lo que es.

🤨 The soundtrack to a clogged toilet

Like the Sword Of Damocles, Trout Mask Replica looms over us all. I was fully prepared for one of the worst things I was ever going to hear but honestly I quite enjoyed it. It’s definitely not an easy listen. It’s abrasive and chaotic but, for me at least, it works. It’s not something that’s gonna be in my regular album rotation but I can see myself once or twice a year taking a notion to give this a listen. Top Track - When Big Joan Set Up

An interesting album but no stand out songs.

Aww shit... It's time. The inevitable has come. I have finally been forced to sit through the entire 78-minute runtime of Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band. This is one of those albums whose reputation precedes it. I mean, let's face it. Love it or hate it, Trout Mask Replica is a legendary album. It's influence is immense. The album itself is certainly quite unique. There really wasn't anything like it before its release. There's no denying it. Trout Mask Replica is an album that you must listen to before you die. Is it an album that you have to like because it's "objectively" good? God no. But is it an album that you should listen to at least once to see if you do enjoy it? Absolutely. Of course, that then begs the very important question. Do I enjoy Trout Mask Replica? Uhh... I don't hate it, that's for sure. Do I dare say it? I think I actually... liked the album! I guess I can start by talking about the things that people don't like about the album. I guess that means we have to talk about how the album sounds. This is one crazy-ass album right here. The tempo barely even exists at points, there's always so much going on at once, and Captain Beefheart's vocals are pretty gruff and off-kilter. This should sound horrendous, and for many it does. I mean, now's as good a time as any to mention the... shall we say, difficult conditions under which the album was made? However, there are moments here where the talent of the Magic Band is made quite clear. Like, there's a part on "Sugar 'n Spikes" where John French, the drummer, just locks the fuck in and does this cool ass drum solo and I was kind of wowed by it when I heard it. Keep in mind, this was much closer to the album's end than its beginning, so moments like that are beneficial in allowing the album to reel your attention back in during the long runtime. That's one of the other things that I see people complain about with this one. It's easy to handle music that you might perceive as "obnoxious" for 30 minutes or so, but to handle it for 78 minutes is a real feat of endurance. Of course, this isn't just on the listener. It's on the artist in question to make an album that warrants its runtime. Fortunately, I'd say that Trout Mask Replica actually kind of succeeds in this regard. Are there better 70+ minute long albums that do a better job of keeping a hold on you for the whole time? Yes. You give me the choice between re-listening to this or To Pimp a Butterfly and I'm choosing TPAB any day of the week. However, I can't really say that this album dragged in the way that many of this list's worst albums do. Certainly helps that the music itself is interesting, albeit to a detriment for some. Not me though! I will say that, unlike the somewhat obnoxious instrumentation, the songwriting is something that I would call unabashedly good. It's got commentary, absurdity, humor, occasional emotion, and variety. I like what this album has to say. Trout Mask Replica is such a fascinating album for many reasons. The things that many people love about the album are the exact things that cause a bunch of other people to loathe the album. As for me? I can see both sides of the coin. This is undeniably a challenging listen. Between the length and the unconventionality of the music, this is an album that many people are just not going to be able to stomach. However, there are also plenty of things that I really appreciate about it, even if I myself wouldn't go as far as to call this a masterpiece. This is one weird album, but it's a weird album that I respect. I don't plan on revisiting it much in the future, if ever, but I'm glad that I listened to it this once. I get the appeal, even if I can't say that I love it myself. 3/5.

Flawless perfection

Asking anyone to listen to this album in its entirety should be considered abuse, and punishable in a court of law

Weird but entertaining.

An experimental classic. Weird as hell but perfectly suited for a list like this. 5/5

Very unusual but not as bad as I thought it would be. I noticed this is one of the universally disliked albums on the site and was expecting the worst but I feel like there have been albums on here that are super experimental noise that I couldn't stand. This isn't that bad, I would never listen to it again but it didn't make me feel like I was going crazy. Also, I think that might be a carp on the cover not a trout. I'm sure that is the point and there is some meaning there but I don't get it.

Meh ….

if i got £1 for every time an individual music critic got paid to write a review of this album for a reputable publication in which the critic would call this album a perfect masterpiece in the medium of music i would have four great british pounds. there's some good guitar and drum work on here, and the vocalist certainly sells what he's going for. but i don't have anything else good to say, gets a 2 for being bad & interesting rather than bad & boring. highlights when big joan sets up she's too much for my mirror veteran's day poppy ella guru pachuco cadaver

Yeh I didn't need to listen to this before I died. It was almost good at some point but it was mostly bad. I'm really not sure what it was going for but it was tiring to listen to. This is Ciśnienie if it was lame. ...Is what I said initially I kept finding myself humming part of the album and coming back to give it another shot and my opinion of it consistently improves. It's somehow catchy and chaotic along with the crazy amount of talent on display. It took the band 8 months of constant practice and then they recorded it in a 6 hour sitting?? No wonder it's a magic band... If you have the stamina I urge you to listen to this 7 times. On the 7th time it starts hitting like crazy

I really think he recorded in his bathroom.

(100/100)

Noisy

It finally happened. Not sure why people hate it, but I don't love it for the sake of contrarianism either. Really liked the experimentation though. 4/5

So people bought this and then took the effort to flip to side B, and then the further effort to pull the second record out of the sleeve and continue?

Wää grussig Ha na chli umegsuecht um das z finde aber denn uf dasi woni gstosse bin isch disgusting

hahaha igitt 10 sekunde glost und fast chli trurig chani mir die restliche 1h 17min 50s nöd gönne

It's practically unlistenable. I know some famous people love it, but I think that's more about establishing an avant-garde identity or being cool than it is about actual musical enjoyment. Another example would be The Shaggs. Zappa and Cobain said they were geniuses because they were untrained and played "pure" music. But that too is unlistenable. This just sounds like an unstable person that they allowed to do whatever he wanted, while the trained musicians tried to noodle around. He sings like Tom Waits without any sense of musicality. The poetry is excruciatingly bad. What the hell, people? Untrained and unrestrained does not a genius make. Zappa might well be a musical genius, as he's done some incredible things. But his musicians were well trained and knew they were making wild excursions into uncharted territories. And sometimes they just made noise, too. Both of those things are evident here. But the singing and poetry bring it all down down down. As a producer on this, he just let this madman ramble and enabled his foolishness. Now, certainly there is a chance I just "don't get it". But there's no way I'm coming back to this block of horror in the hopes of becoming enlightened. It's a 1 at best.

What an album! Can't imagine there are going to be many on this list which will be quite as divisive, far out and generally wild as this one. I played it at work for some coworkers and it generated a pretty great heated conversation about the merits of art, modern art and experimentation. As a piece of provocative art this absolutely succeeds. There is just enough sustenance in the chaos to keep the listener engaged but it's still pretty thoroughly chaotic. You can definitely hear the influence on punk music but it also borrows from jazz, classical rock and beyond. Now would I readily put this into my rotation of "good music" I go for again and again? Absolutely not but I really enjoyed the experience of listening to and learning about this. I will round my rating up based on how affective this album was but acknowledge that there is a whole lot of context required to appreciate this album as much as I have.

It’s been said that you need to listen to this album at least 7 times before you really start to get it. I think I’m on my 5th or 6th listen since I first heard it a couple years ago and I am definitely still peeling back layers. There’s something new to take away every time you hear it. Do I enjoy listening to this album? Maybe not in the way that I enjoy other albums. This is a dense, difficult listen that demands your attention. The guitar playing is jagged, fractured, and frequently following a different rhythm than the drums and bass. The lyrics are almost completely nonsensical for large parts of the album and aren't always in sync with the music because Van Vliet recorded them while barely being able to hear the instrumental tracks from one of the studio windows. It is most assuredly “fast and bulbous”. The story of the rehearsals and recording of the album are just as bizarre as the album itself. The band lived communally in a house in which they were restricted from leaving for months where Van Vliet “asserted complete artistic and emotional domination of his musicians”, including verbal abuse and physical violence that frequently reduced members to tears. They practiced for upwards of 14 hours a day and barely had any money or food to eat. The scene was described as cult-like and Manson-esque. I genuinely cannot fathom why the band stuck around for as long as they did, but I am happy they did as this album has gone on to influence countless artist that I love (Tom Waits, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, David Lynch to name a few) and is the gold standard of experimental and avant-garde music.

Sounded like angry geese.

I suppose this should be right up my street, given that I'm a massive Zappa fan, but It's always been a struggle. I don't care what anyone says, this is a difficult listen, right from the off. That's doesn't make it bad, in fact, quite the opposite. I'm just going to have to make more of an effort because of the strong sense of FOMO. It's on my shelves. Heard before ✅️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ✅️ Tentative ★★★★☆ (7/10)

Awful

I was looking forward to this one initially after having heard about it on the Reddit page, and generally I like non traditional experimental music, but I do think this one may be pushing it a bit. Shouting abstract lyrics over the top of seemingly unorderly blues jams with strange keys and tonations is one way to make your music very technical/difficult, but also hard to enjoy…

Not available on Apple Music

Was actually quite fun, despite not being a blues fan :-)

This is a poor replica of a good album.

so far only first 20 mins... not my thing, I think. Open to revisiting to see if I like it more sometime in the future, though.

It’s not on Spotify and that’s fine. It’s ridiculous and pretty unpleasant

Will always be a critics favourite due to insane stories attached to the recording of it. Always been too much for me this one.

Spotify doesn’t have it. I’m not sad.

Not available on Tidal


I was one of maybe three or four teenagers who listened to an inordinate amount of Captain Beefheart in the 1980s. That was strange I admit, but the music is stranger still. I wouldn’t be surprised if this album single-handedly led many to jump off the 1001 bandwagon altogether. That would be an understandable response to this surreal, dissonant, experimental tour de craziness. And I almost downgraded the album myself. But then, it draws me back in again… I surrender to the surreal, I ride along, and I’m captivated the way you get captivated by a strange yet provocative piece of artwork.

Ordinarily this kind of album would test my patience. It is very experimental, indulgent sounding, and brutal to get through. However, it is Captain Beefheart - which is like a degree of difficulty indicator. I can only say that if you commit to listening to it, you will be rewarded (no, the end isn't full of commercial singles), but is like ready James Joyce. To appreciated it, you have to get really familiar with the dialogue and rhythm of it to appreciate it. Still it is hard. I am giving it a four because I am not strong enough to give it a five.

One of the best ever.

In a nutshell: intentionally weird. Of course Frank Zappa was behind this 🙄 Just play it. Even if you skip tracks you don’t like, because how can you know what you don’t like if you don’t try listening to different shit? Overall: 3/10

Unsure how to rate this

Probably the most inaccessible album ever. I will say I liked it better on the second listen. Favorite track: Moonlight on Vermont

Hello, where are you going

This is either the ramblings of a mad man or true genius, or maybe both, I’m not sure. Being an influence on Tom Waits deserves credit and is perhaps the main (only?) reason it intrigues me. Trout Mask Replica is a full on assault of unpredictability, you have no idea what’s coming next, in fact, the only thing that is predictable is that the next track won’t let you sit comfortably. Should you listen to this before you die? I think probably, yes. In fact, apparently 7 times if you want to begin to see its true genius.

Graded 11th from bottom, so what the fuck is this doing on here. Album cover is such a cringe.

I guess this record is considered important within the lens of experimental rock. Sure, I can see that. I find it hard to trust people who consider this their FAVORITE record of all time, however. I won't deny that the personnel involved here were decorated musically and the fact that the composition pretty much stands on its own, but the "lol random" of it all doesn't automatically make this a masterpiece or anything. I see this as just a novelty and not much else, to be honest. The various squeaks from the sax are the only thing I'll remember from this.

You wouldn’t get it

The greatest prank ever made in music.

That's what I call "art". Captain Beefheart is just something else. Completely unique and unhinged.

I can't imagine being upset over this album. It's meant to be kinda stupid, right? Like they knew what they were making was a mess. It was a middle finger to the status quo. How can you hate that? It's a proto-Double Nickels On The Dime...I'll take messes over polish every day of the week.

This is a very generous review. I never thought I would dislike Zappa's work, but this is just too much

THE avant-garde art-rock album. Look, it's objectively terrible. Just because it's difficult to have several musicians play consistently at slightly different beats doesn't mean such things should be recorded. This is worse than prog rock. All of the pretentiousness, none of the songwriting talent. They're an okay jam band, but they are completely unrelatable. Nothing is conveyed, no emotion, no fun, no point. And of course, as though we wouldn't have believed that someone who recorded and sold this was jarringly arrogant, it's a double album. Influence 1. Quality 1. Intangibles 3 (it'sTHE albumfor this, but no one shouldsufferthroughthe double). Hits 1. Captain Beefheart can eat a big bag of trout dicks 1.

This one I was dreading. And yeah this is awful, everything about this album feels like it was made as it was being recorded under the influence of many illicit substances. It’s truly an awful listen, and yet this was the funniest 78 minute joke I’ve ever heard and I kinda loved listening to it despite how much I hated the sounds I was hearing

3.5 RYM / Proto Math Rock

Proving that not all magic is good.

Nope! (Although now I know where the sound bite “It’s the blimp” came from that WBLM used.)

An album that stubbornly refuses to end. There were a couple tracks that kept this from being 1*, but it was close. 1.5* rounding up.

Nope, not for me, but I did like learning about this pioneer in Expermenatal Rock.

weird album but kinda fun

i dont know man

#23 The YouTube comments are right, as if this band is playing while falling down never-ending stairs. Fast and bulbous!

What a strange album. Never heard anything quite like this before. This is my 3rd time trying to get through the entire thing. I have immense respect and pity for the musicians who were straight tortured in order to make this album. It takes both incredible talent, dedication, and mental resilience in order to make this. And yet I still don't know if I like it. I can understand the intrigue it brought looking at the records that came out the same year (Abbey Road, Kind of Blue, Led Zeppelin II) and this sounds like it was made almost orthogonally to the influence of the music of the past, like it lives on a completely different axis than everything else. I don't hate any of the songs either, in fact I really like Veteran's Day Poppy. I just don't see myself listening to it with the same fervor, passion (dare I say poisson) and love that other people hold for this album. This is a very interesting album. I know I'll be listening to this again to get a better opinion on it, just not any time soon. 4/5

Interesting? Probably to some. Good? Nope, it's a cacophony for the sake of it.

Tried to get into it but it’s too dissonant for me. Lyrics are funny at times in an ignatius j. Reilly sort of way but it’s pretty atonal and unmusical.

I have tried to like this album for decades.