TROUT MASK REPLICA

An acclaimed, influential, and ultimately hyped album, 'Trout Mask Replica' has a way of tearing a crevice between music listeners. Some hail it as one of the most original sounding and adventurous albums ever made, while other recoil in disgust at its fairly loose and quirky approach. As with many albums that get hyped up with their controversy, I get rather excited, in eager anticipation to see whether I'll be in the 'love it' or 'hate it' school of thought. With this album though, I find myself in a very unique position. I can relate to the views of both, and understand fully why someone would either adore, or abhor it. Simultaneously, Captain Beefheart has created an album that is both ingenious, yet can be interpreted as stupidity. An album that is dissonant and ugly-sounding, yet warm and endearing. Although very imperfect, 'Trout Mask Replica' does revel in its flaws, and while I still don't quite understand the legendary hype around this album, Captain Beefheart has created an intriguing artistic statement here.

A very long album for its time, 'Trout Mask Replica' is comprised of a twenty eight track, seventy eight minute wander through Captain Beefheart's rather deranged mind. Although I was expecting to hear something unclassifiable as the hype would have me believe, I interpret 'Trout Mask Replica' as a loose and experimental style of blues rock, with jazz and spoken word elements. Of the twenty eight sections here, things can be divided up into either bluesy songs, jazzy instrumental snippets, or spoken interludes with some surreal and often very silly dialogue. The blues element to 'Trout Mask' is arguably the most conventional, and gives the most concrete impression of songwriting that the album can muster. The jazz elements are much more loose, and rely more on the keen yet intentionally rough musicianship of the Magic Band, rather than the nasal charisma of Beefheart. Lastly, the interludes offer the least musicality to the album, but rather aim to break up the action a little, giving a nicer sense of flow. Indeed, the album is not all over the place, but instead seeks to return to a handful of different styles that are weird and off-putting enough to keep sounding fresh.

Probably the biggest point of derision for 'Trout Mask Replica' is the really jammed-out instrumentation behind Beefheart's voice. Indeed- especially upon a first listen- it sounds very much like each band member is playing something completely independent of the rest of the band. This could be interpreted as brilliantly polyrhythmic, but the way that the band passes themselves off makes it sound like they cannot play their instruments at all, and that alot of the sound on 'Trout Mask Replica' is fashioned out of their incompetence or ambivalence towards the album. Of course, this is not true at all; the Magic Band are very talented musicians, and while I can admit that even I was wondering at a few points over the course of the album whether or not these musicians had a little too much to drink before recording, the best way to appreciate 'Trout Mask Replica' is to take everything as is, and interpret everything as being feverishly intentional.

The sound and originality to 'Trout Mask Replica' is brilliant, but the album's length does feel unwarranted, especially when listening to the second half of the album seems almost like a total reprise of the first. Although lyrics change and the details become different, Beefheart's freakout blues does repeat itself, and over the course of twenty eight tracks, it really does feel as if there is material here that is on the record only to emphasize a previously made point, rather than to add anything new to the album. Listening to the second half, it really did feel in parts as if the entire thing was repeating itself, and while a longer album often equates to more value, 'Trout Mask Replica' could have made an even bigger statement if it had been cut down a little. The quirky passion is here in Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band like nowhere else, but unless the point was to create a deja-vu feeling, some of the time here could have been trimmed.

Captain Beefheart's genius does shine through here, although it is a tough pill to swallow at first. This is not music that can be enjoyed all too much without paying close attention to everything that is going on, and while I do love what Beefheart sets off to do here, 'Trout Mask Replica' still feels like an album that could have been improved upon. The first ten songs or so give an intense and refreshing experience, but as the album plods on, the recycled quirk can wear thin. All the same, 'Trout Mask Replica' is intense, and while it still may not be the 'weirdest' thing out there, it will challenge even the more adventurous listeners out there.

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