Zack: As I write this, I am nearing my third time
through this album. The last time this happened, it was Rust Never Sleeps by
Neil Young and it was like 4 a.m. That is not quite the case here. I first
listened to Freak Out! two days ago. At the time, I was tired, had to be up at
5 the next morning, and was very stressed out. I could tell that there were a
lot of layers to the album that I just wasn’t paying attention to because of
all those distractions. Quite frankly, I wasn’t in the right mindset to listen
to it. So the next day, I switched it up a little. I got a bottle of bourbon
and swung by a friend’s apartment. We drank and listened to it together. While
he hadn’t listened to Freak Out! in quite some time, he did know several
interesting facts about the album that not even the mighty Wikipedia had told
me. But, more importantly, he (and the bourbon) helped me relax and get closer
to the right state necessary to really enjoy this ultra-influential work. But
of course I wasn’t just going to stop talking with him and write a review right
there, so I had to wait until today. By that point I figured I could use a
quick refresher, hence the third listen. Now that I explained the arduous
process I needed to endure to get to this point, let me say that this album is
brilliant in idea and great in execution. Frank Zappa and company, for their
debut effort, decided to tackle the superflousness of pop culture. Most of the
album sounds like pop tunes that are just slightly…off. They’re catchy but
usually featuring an extra layer of odd instrumentation (most often a kazoo)
meant to make them sound childish. The lyrics range from the ludicrous (all of
Wowie Zowie) to the meta (“I think your life is incomplete/But maybe that’s not
for me to say/They only pay me here to play”). Freak Out! is one of the first
concept albums, but the uniting theme is, in most places, the intentional lack
of a theme. While the album is bookmarked on each end with a runs of
experimental stuff, the middle portion rotates routinely between some cheesy
love song and a break-up song. In order it goes Go Cry on Someone Else’s
Shoulder, Motherly Love, How Could I be Such a Fool, Wowie Zowie, You Didn’t
Try and Call Me, and Any Way the Wind Blows. Without fail, a mushy gushy love
song is brought crashing down a whining track about a failed love. This pattern
has a bit of a devastating effect. The implication is that the love that exists
in one song is such an invention, a pure piece of corporatism crap meant to be
fed to a public who wants to hear love songs, that it can be easily
disassembled in the next song, and then repeated over and over again into
infinity. There is no real emotion behind these songs. It is all manufactured
solely to move the album along. The consequence is that the “concept” part that
makes this a concept album isn’t floating on the surface like others we’ve
encountered. It’s hidden underneath, in a layer called subtext that I rarely
like to go now that I’m not in a high school English class anymore. But I
suppose listening to an album three times before writing a review has to result
in at least a moderately deeper analysis than usual (sorry!). Beyond all the
highbrow concept and phony pop songs, there are the experimental tracks I
mentioned earlier. Who Are the Brain Police and Help, I’m a Rock are both
different and I think are probably hit or miss from person to person. The
former didn’t really gel with me all that much, but I kind of liked the latter.
But the biggest example of just musical weirdness has to be Return of the Sound
of the Monster Magnet. This is what Zappa said to the producer leading up to
its recording: “I would like to rent $500 worth of percussion equipment for a
session that starts at midnight on Friday and I want to bring all the freaks
from Sunset Boulevard into the studio to do something special." You know
only good things can happen when that’s the foreshadowing. Return of the Sound
of the Monster Magnet is over 12 minutes long (or 1/5th of the hour
long double album) and really highlights the freaks from above. It’s all over
the place with weird sound effects and noises. But somewhere deep within all
the chaos is an awesome song that somehow doesn’t seem to drag on nearly as
long as it should. To wrap this novel up, Freak Out! is the kind of album that
grows from pure creative genius being unleashed in a studio. In talking to some
friends who are Zappa fans, I’ve heard a consensus that the band (and Zappa
individually) really grow as musicians and their subsequent albums are better
in that respect. But I have my doubts that we will encounter another album on
this list as masterfully designed as this one. Although, if we do, I may need
to listen to it only once, lest I write another behemoth post like this one.
Favorite Tracks: Hungry Freaks, Daddy; Return of the Sound
of the Monster Magnet; Any Way the Wind Blows
Emily: What someone deems experimental in one era can
become commonplace and mainstream by the next, or it can sound like someone
dropped a bunch of random objects and recorded the impact of their noises and
called it music. It all depends on the success of the experiment. Freak Out!,
Zappa’s debut album, embodies both of those views of experimental music to an
extent. Debuting in 1966, Freak Out! incorporates the bluesy, upbeat sound of
that era’s rock music with satirical social commentary – unique for a band that
used to only do R&B covers. Zappa’s spoken-word-esque delivery highlights
his message in the tracks of this style. Later on, however, the last few tracks
take on that let’s-record-random-noises sound that I know is influential but
also pains my ears. I’m interested to hear where Zappa went with these
disparate influences as he honed his sound beyond his debut – blues, rock,
noise, or something completely different? Whatever it is, I’m excited to find
out as we continue the list.
Favorite Tracks: Hungry
Freaks, Daddy; Trouble Every Day; I Ain’t Got No Heart
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