Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Frank Zappa & The Mothers of InventionEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1995-05-02
Music Label: Zappa Records
Soundtracks:
- Hungry Freaks, Daddy
- I Ain't Got No Heart
- Who Are The Brain Police?
- Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder
- Motherly Love
- How Could I Be Such A Fool
- Wowie Zowie
- You Didn't Try To Call Me
- Any Way The Wind Blows
- I'm Not Satisfied
- You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
- Trouble Every Day
- Help, I'm A Rock
- It Can't Happen Here
- The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet
Free Music Notes for Freak Out!
Free Music Review: "These Mothers is crazy"
Hit: 4 Stars
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 clich?s, 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!
Freak Out! Poster
"This is the voice of your conscience, baby..." The recording debut of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a brilliantly wicked counter-strike to the flower power sensibilities prevalent at the time of it's release in 1966. Arguably rock music's first true "concept album," Zappa's aural collage mashes together chunks of psychedelic guitars, outspoken political commentary, cultural satire, and avant-garde musical sensibilities, and then hides it all under cleverly crafted pop melodies. Not diminished in the slightest by the passage of time, Freak Out! remains as vital and relevant today as it was in the 1960's. --Andrew BoscardinAlternative Rock Music CDs
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