TROUT MASK REPLICA

A few words of warning... this is an extreeeeeeeeemly frustrating album for those allergic to weird voices, squawking horns, odd beat poetry, sound-collage, and general all-around mayhem. This is not an album to relax to.

"Trout Mask Replica" on first listen can sound like a huge, unorganized mess, and I guess it is, but to my ears, it's the coolest mess I ever heard, like the audio equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting. Every track on here is just the craziest thing I've ever heard and just gets better every listen. The Captain and crew play a kind of avant-garde jazz rock here that sounds improvised but actually is tightly arranged (I was surprised to find out!). This is also Captain Beefheart's best set of lyric's IMO, he sounds like Tom Waits on crack, especially on the handful of a capella tracks smattered throughout the album. Also someone (the Captain? Zappa?) had the genius idea to leave snippets of recording conversation in, which adds to the disjointed feel of the proceedings.

Again, those expecting Yes will find this album (and most of Captain Beefheart's catalog I'd think) rather unlistenable. But "Trout Mask Replica" is one of my personal favorites, a mess maybe, but a fantastic mess.