THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: FREAK OUT!

There are many kinds of musicians/musical artists out there. Some may be here for the purpose of purely entertaining us, but some have a different agenda in mind. Frank Zappa was truly a man who was put on this earth to create something for us, for the world, but obviously not necessarily the masses. For those who cared to listen, we were given something truly innovative and fresh from this man of sheer genius.

This debut album from The Mothers of Invention is not the most complex, and perhaps doesn't always have fantastic material on it, but you would be mad not to be able to see the work put into it and how innovative it was, albeit it sometimes feels like not all the album aged very well. It is a wonderfully amusing album, poking a lot of fun at the popular music at the time, as well as making a lot of fun of stereotypes, but there are some more serious social and political commentary lyrics to be found as well.

Some of the music can be pretty cheesy to be honest, and some of the lyrics as well, but overall the album has so much amusing points in it that really make up for the cheesy moments. Another negative point is some of the vocals don't always seem to work well and the same goes for some vocal melodies too, throughout the album. If I had to pick one track that stands above the rest, it would be the closing track, The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet. It features some insanely cool collage mixing techniques and the vocals/voices throughout are cool as they are enigmatic. The song also features some more ambient elements thrown into the mix. Definitely a truly genius song from Frank and the Mothers. The next best song for me, is Help I'm A Rock, which has a really interesting rhythm to it, and has some really crazy and strange voices/vocals throughout, and despite it being perhaps one of the less accessible songs on here, I find it highly enjoyable and one the songs I listened to most from the album. I also really liked Who Are The Brain Police?, which tends not to stay in the same direction throughout and is very thought provoking too, an excellent and well written song no doubt and one that aged particulary well like the two aforementioned songs. The one other real stand out for me is It Can't Happen Here which is just insanely bizarre.

For all it's flaws, the album and band make up for it with incredible moments of sheer genius throughout. Even though I don't think it was Zappa's or Frank/The Mother's best work,I believe this album is essential listening, for it was so revolutionary, different, crazy at the time and changed the face of progressive music forever.