 "The Real FREAK OUT!" | 2008-08-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: AX4527Z2N2OJB |
| The first Mother's album was a huge step outside the normal rock and roll of the mid sixties, introducing it's audience to the Psychodelic era. This album is historic if nothing else. The music is an early Frank Zappa with the current culture influence, it sounds nothing like the later Frank and has rough edges. |
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| ""These Mothers is crazy"" | 2008-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By mr105601 |
Debut albums are often tentative, exploratory works. They find artists refining their sound, honing their chops, getting a feel for the studio, delicately introducing themselves to their audiences, and otherwise learning to navigate the ins and outs of this whole "recorded music" thing. In the 60s, this usually made for unexciting quickies that buried two great songs under ten bits of worthless filler. Covers ruled the day, and the originals were largely dull and derivative.
For his debut album, Frank Zappa ripped rock music in half and rebuilt it in his own image.
Here's how he did it: He took all of the clichés, conventions, and conceits that had come to rule the pop world and he turned them inside out. He wrote doo-wop ditties with upside down harmonies and surreal narratives. He wrote catchy melodies and pureed them into white noise. He made time signatures go to war with each other. He juxtaposed cheesy pop and musique concrete. Greaseball R&B sat side-by-side with acid fried social commentary. Accessibility went one-for-one with alienation. It's hilarious, catchy, eye opening, friendly, and uncompromising, and it all goes on for over an hour.
And what an hour it is! This album is just about stuffed with classic moments. I mean, who could ask for a better opening salvo than "Hungry Freaks, Daddy?" It's a stinging rocker, a furiously intelligent weirdo anthem, and a good-natured descent into the experimental. And it's catchy! Elsewhere, the album flaunts socially enraged garage rock ("Trouble Every Day"), hilarious post-modern teen pop ("Wowie Zowie," "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder"), Oedipally conflicted sex-rock ("Motherly Love"), sneering anti-love anthems ("I Ain't Got No Heart"), and whatever the hell "Who Are The Brain Police?" is. I love "Who Are The Brain Police?"
But it's the album's second half that really flies the ol' freak flag. Starting with "Help, I'm A Rock," the proceedings begin a descent into a menacing world of mean-spirited sound collages, spooked acid-psych, and leering avant-garage. The structures become less linear and more freewheeling, less accessible and more violent, less friendly and more...freaky.
Believe it or not, it works. The music (experimental and otherwise) has dated surprisingly well, thanks in no small part to the fact that, as subversive as he was, Frank Zappa was a great writer of pop songs, and the Mothers of Invention were a great band. The wilder elements of the record are balanced by a great sense of humor and adventure. In the end, it's actually the more conventional songs that wind up dragging Freak Out! down a peg: "I'm Not Satisfied" and "How Could I Be Such A Fool" are pretty dull, with stiff melodies and drab lyrics. "You Didn't Try To Call Me" has little more going for it than a cool-sounding intro, and "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" repeats the outcast-anthem message of the album without really contributing anything new.
Still... classic album! |
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| "Freak Out!" | 2008-06-09 |
| - Reviewed By mortonsguitar |
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention-Freak Out! ****
Well...um...I was pretty disappointed by Freak Out! when I first heard it, so I thought this can't be right, this is nothing like everyone described it, and so I gave it a couple more listens and still nothing. So I set it aside for a while and when I finally went back to it I still felt the same way.
One thing is for sure it is really one of the most original rock albums of all time, not that all of Zappa's releases aren't but this one especially. It is bizarre but not in the bizarre that I thought it would be and it is nothing like any of his other releases. The musicianship is nowhere near the level that everyone describes it as. 'I'm Not Satisfied' has some great piano work, and 'Trouble Every Day' has some great early garage rock guitar, and was really a sign of things to come.
Zappa's humour in his lyrics here is great however, and actually some of the best of his career, and he clearly had his vocals down patent since phase one. But what I found most impressive about Freak Out! is that it is nothing like the hippie movement as the title implies, in fact it is almost anti that, and that is what is so brilliant, not the musicianship, but the social commentary of the time. The impressionistic ways of the youth in America and how they are so susceptible to things and how it is wrong of the capitalist ways to take advantage.
'Trouble Every Day' is fantastic, the doo-whop feel of most of the album while a tribute, Zappa makes it uniquely his own, and 'Help, I'm A Rock' is also among his all time best, so while this isn't quite the album I was hoping for but it is still a legendary effort, I mean it did inspire Srg. Pepper, so there you go! |
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| "First Mother's Album" | 2008-04-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A222M9VLVSA1DC |
| This first from Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention is a slick yet primative piece of work. I first heard this when I was about 14; the new digital recording does the piece well. It's all a done in a satirical way but it holds up well. Recommended for Zappa fans as a period piece. |
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 "The Left-Behinds...of the Great Society" | 2008-03-14 |
| - Reviewed By jimijr |
Substitute "...if another WHITE TRUCK DRIVER..." for "...if another woman driver..." and you have not the Watts riot '65 but south LA '92 -- the Rodney King riots. "Trouble Every Day" has stayed with me all this time. My band covered it, believe it or not, with that one update. It still sounds good on my sound check tapes.
"Mr America, walk on by your liquor store supreme..." Has anything changed?
It is difficult to take Zappa at face value when he says he was only in it for the money, so he could make the music he really wanted, string quartets, in his basement. |
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| "One of the More Important Recordings of the 20th Century - Period!" | 2007-08-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1IAQIZSXONWVU |
I first heard Zappa and the Mothers of Invention when I borrowed this double album set from a friend. It belonged to his sister who was away at college. I was 16 or 17 years old. I liked this but at the time, I really didn't have a full appreciation for what this monumental release was all about. Freak Out! is an incredible work of art. It's a comment on shallow American culture and a send up of the ridiculous values we are taught, especially in high school. What we have here is nothing less than art reflecting society.
This is one of the more important recordings of the 20th century. No foolin'! Countless musicians have been influenced (deeply) by Freak Out!
Recorded in 1965 and released in 1966. You've got to be kidding me (I know you aren't). This music was so far reaching, so far ahead of its time. Unreal. I hadn't heard Freak Out! for a good 30 years or so and when I popped this gem into the car player I found myself listening with new ears. Now what do I mean by new ears? During the years in-between I discovered Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Stravinsky, Bartok, and so on. That's what I mean.
Back when I was 17 years old, while I liked the music (mostly for its humor) I did not have the background for a full understanding of what was going on. Now I do. Freak Out! is definitely in my top 10 list of all time favorites along with Filles de Kilamajaro, Kind of Blue, A Love Supreme, Bitches Brew, Ah Em, and Out to Lunch - that's some really serious company.
If you are serious about the way you listen to music you simply must have a copy of Freak Out!
There is one thing I'm unsure about, my memory has become fuzzy with age... I could swear that "Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet" was much longer on the vinyl release. Am I mistaken? Please leave a comment if you know the answer. |
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| "A gem of the late sixties" | 2007-04-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3EHRBLC0FWCIY |
This is just one of those classics that you could never get enough of, no matter how many spins it gets. A bizzarre and delightfully off-kilter assault on the ears.
'Freak Out' is one of the more unconventional albums of its time. It has that unmistakingly late 60's acid trip vibe to it that really adds a nice touch to the Zappa insanity. 'Freak Out' is full of unconventional, off-kilter, mock-pop songs that really indulge in Zappa's bizzare sense of humor, such as 'Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder', but then it also has its 'moments of clarity' as well. This album really reminds me of Pink Floyd's 'Saucerful of Secrets' except with more humor and less LSD. Even though the music is aimed in different directions, the production and mix are really similar in my opinion. Everything on this album is completely, delightfully, off the wall.
From the almost instrumental arrangments of vocalizations that would later be the foundation of Mike Patton's Mr. Bungle, to the extremely long sound samples twords the end, everything fits together perfectly in its own, strange, Zappatastic way. The sound samples are really a key part to this album rather than simple filler. Zappa prove to be absolutely and completely original by preforming magnificant pieces of avant-garde art with seemingly mindless noise.
'Freak Out' is truly a gem of the late sixties, and an absolute must have for anyone who considers himself the slightest Zappa fan. Scratch that, for anyone who considers himself a fan of avant-garde music itself, this album is totally classic. |
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| "The album that made me a Zappa freak" | 2006-12-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3HA27LGAU80YZ |
| My first Zappa album was the Grand Wazoo and I thought it was pretty good. I didn't think it was that great though. But I am happy that it gave me just enough interest in Zappa to buy this album. This album attacks pop music so well you would think that it was serious and not a joke. A few songs on here have music that is not ironic (Hungry Freaks Daddy, I ain't got no heart, Who are the Brain Police, Trouble Every Day, and Help I'm a Rock) most of the songs are simple pop songs with cliche lyrics and thats what makes them so funny. A concept album is an album that has a theme the entire time or tells a story, and this was the first rock album that had a concept (yes it even preceded Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band)I have since bought one other album by Zappa (You are What You Is) and I can't choose which of the two I like better. I have really connected with his music recently and I plan on buying many of his albums. The lead work is very good for its time, but his later albums definately have WAY better guitar solos. He doesn't satire every form of life on this album like he does on later albums, but he definately satires sappy made for radio pop songs. The songs I listed above are more expirimental and those are my favorites on this album and they will hint at what Zappa will create later. It's hard to belive that so many great albums can come from one man, C'ya latter Zappa Rules! |
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| "The first step in Zappa's amazing world...." | 2006-12-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2UYAFQ40U2PHS |
| In many cases, when an artist puts out a great debut album (or film, book, TV programme), it is quite often a pain in the butt, as they have an enormously difficult time coming up with something greater. Orson Welles's Citizen Kane is considered the greatest film of all time by many critics, how do you top that? Welles was never really able to. Zappa did. Freak Out is an amazing album, yet, Zappa was able to constantly do work that was even better than this album, one of the greatest debuts in rock history. Zappa made interesting and artistic work up until his death (which is the day I'm writing this review). This is one of my favorites, especially the last track, the originally side long song The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet. The producer, Tom Wilson, was on acid when Zappa recorded it, so God only knows what the hell transpired in his mind that night. The social commentary on here is still valid, and this is one of the greatest debuts of all time. Zappa never disappointed.... |
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| "What can one say?" | 2006-12-03 |
| - Reviewed By catfish@netdoor.com |
I leave the brilliant musical commentary to the other reviewers who are obviously better qualified.
My review consists of one sentence:
I heard it in 1967; never recovered, never wanted to.
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