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Freak Out!

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! Audio CD

A fair review of the Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention "Freak Out!" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention reviews here, or go back to the Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention tabs.

Band: Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Title: Freak Out!
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-05-02
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Hungry Freaks, Daddy 2: I Ain't Got No Heart 3: Who Are the Brain Police? 4: Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder 5: Motherly Love 6: How Could I Be Such a Fool? 7: Wowie Zowie 8: You Didn't Try to Call Me 9: Any Way the Wind Blows 10: I'm Not Satisfied 11: You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here 12: Trouble Every Day 13: Help, I'm a Rock 14: It Can't Happen Here 15: Return of the Son of Monster Magnet

Ahead Of Its Time In The 60s And Nowadays
Freak Out! introduced what would become known very shortly as acid or psychedelic rock and experiemental rock and also introduced the concept album and mixes so many generes together like doo wop etc, avant garde, and classical music, and that is just the start. Freak Out! was realesed in 1966 and has become one of the first ever truly psychedelic albums ever realesed and is one of the most complex, weird, and different and original albums out today. Songs like, "Who Are The Brain Police", "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet", were unheard of at the time and were tottaly reveloutinary, and introduced new sounds that would impact music and the music buisness in a big way in the next 1-2 years. Freak Out! also would turn out to influence the greatest album of all time, "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band", so really without this album music would be very different, This album is also almost like surrealistic paintings set to music and is defenently ONE of the first albums ever realesed to be called "art". As I state in the title of this review this album, "Freak Out!", was and is ahead of its time, no other album sounds like this and thats why Freak Out! remains to be one of the most important albums of all time. .

No Respect
This album was so ahead of its time but all the credit for experimentation goes to the velvet underground but this album came out a full year before it was released.

whoa, freaky!
Just a little strange considering the year it was released (1966). actually, no, not very freaky.

This album is mainly a bunch of pop songs that sound VERY dated and stuck in the mid 60's. Even though I love most of the songs, hey, this is not the Frank Zappa album that leaves me begging for more. It has practically none of Zappa's trademark guitar licks, or if it does, they are few and far between.

Not that I can really BLAME the guy for not going the extra mile to be a creative genius- after all, it's his debut album in the mid 60's and the world would probably be more shocked than a lightning rod to hear the kind of stuff Zappa was doing on say, Hot Rats.

Anyway, slightly twisted pop songs are what you can expect from Freak Out!, with a focus on lyrics (actually the lyrics are really good) and small signs (very small) that the genius version of Zappa we'd all know very soon was just around the corner. Every song is a winner though as far as melody is concerned. I'm just not floored with a mid 60's pop album from a guy who obviously was capable of much more.

The Real FREAK OUT!
This album is historic if nothing else. 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. The music is an early Frank Zappa with the current culture influence, it sounds nothing like the later Frank and has rough edges. .

"These Mothers is crazy"
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. Debut albums are often tentative, exploratory works. 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!.

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