948 The Mothers of Invention - Absolutely Free (1967)

 948 The Mothers of Invention - Absolutely Free (1967)

Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock



About the Act:

It’s hard to know what to say about Frank Zappa. There has been a lot written about him and it would be easy to parrot a lot of that. If you want to dig into his history, there’s plenty to go at.

He was prolific. Between 1966 and his death in 1993 he released 62 albums. Since then, 50 more albums have been released. Oh, he was American, I guess that’s relevant. He had a band in the early days, The Mothers of Invention. Some albums are credited to "The Mothers of Invention" some to "Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention" and after the band was disbanded, they were just credited to him.

He is musically hard to describe, some of his output could be classified as Prog, some as Jazz-Rock, some as Avant-Garde Classical, and often it owes more to German Cabaret than anything. It can be complex, and he was an amazing guitarist, who surrounded himself with amazing musicians. He apparently got frustrated with orchestras for hire because they couldn’t play what he wanted them to. Later in life he was starting to embrace cutting-edge synths and sequencing.

So sometimes, the music is front and centre, but often it is the backdrop to his songs. Subject matter: social satire, often disguised as songs about banal things, but then he seems to take just as seriously songs that truly are about banal things. It would not be safe to put one of his albums on at work, or in front of the kids, if you didn’t already know the content, as it is often very adult. And that includes the spoken stuff on live albums. Be prepared for explicit sexual content, political commentary and anti-religious sentiment, all of which is mixed up with a peculiar absurdist humour.

He has a cult following. Presumably some people have bought all 100+ albums. I have listened to a good number of them and am still undecided about him. 


About the Album:

This was the second album by the band.


My History with this Album:

I have had a copy of this album for a while, but have not listened to it often.


Review:

Frank Zappa is an acquired taste, although it may be more true to say that he is several acquired tastes, as his musical output was pretty diverse. At first listen, this album is chaos embodied. I have genre-listed it as "Psychedelic Rock" but it's not really like anything else. The music is extremely varied on this album, an includes jazz, rock, free jazz, doo-wop, lounge singer style and stuff you might think of as progressive. It is pretty loose at times, and sometimes out of time, or out of tune, but seemingly not by accident. It feels a bit like a circus with three things at least going on at once, but a sort of bizarre burlesque circus. Although this is quite early in Zappa's career, the style is definitely his. There is at least one stretch where different performers are in different time signatures. For all of the apparent chaos, this is not just random playing, there are musical references and quotations to classical works, and all sorts of stuff going on. It could take a long time to pick apart.

Lyrically, well, there is social and political satire, and studied banality (about making friends with vegetables) which may or may not be coded satire. It can be hard to tell. There is some NSFW stuff, particularly towards the end. Vocally, we're back to the circus again, there is interleaving of vocals and falsetto, deep, and everything in-between, all delivered in such a way that you know this is irony plastered on with a thick trowel.

I have mixed feelings about Zappa, he was undoubtedly exceedingly proficient musically, and did things not many other people did. He is not easy listening. If you like schlock humour you might love him. At any rate, this album is actually quite a good introduction to typical Frank Zappa.


6.8/10



Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5quWwqogyMjzEXWgCVyvRP

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WY1y8J7MM0

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolutely_Free


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