Trout Mask Replica

Out of all the 650+ CDs that I own...this 1969 album by Captain Beefheart is definitely the weirdest one I own.

Just check out the cover:



This is an avant-garde album which supposedly takes many listens to start appreciating. The first listen will undoubtedly astound you, with guitars, drums and bass playing independantly of each other, with no respect to time signatures or even playing in the correct key.

Apparently (and this is where it gets weird) this is all an illusion. Like one of those magic eye pictures where the picture "pops" out at you after staring at it for long enough, the brilliance of this album is supposed to "appear" after giving it enough listens. Ahhh well...those magic eye picture never worked for me, so I'm not sure this will...but I'll keep on giving it a go :-)

After starting to appreciate jazz a bit more, this album doesn't sound as weird as on my first listen, but I still haven't gotten to the stage where I say I love (or even like) this album.

There is no doubting that this is a unique album in the history of rock, so it at least deserves credit for that. And there are some great songs on it: "Moonlight on Vermont" is a brilliant blues song and probably one of the most "normal" tracks on the album (and that's saying a lot). "China pig" is a great slice of raw delta blues. "The blimp (mousetrapreplica)" is hilarious.

I could continue but I won't. Give this a listen. Maybe it'll blow you away. I hope it does the same for me one day.