| CD Reviews |
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Absolutely Free
Review by Julie Knispel
Released nearly 1 year to the day after Freak Out!, Absolutely Free was the second release by the Mothers of Invention. Led by Frank Zappa, the Mothers of Invention began moving beyond the nascent avant garde elements of their previous work to fully embrace a wider range of classical and jazz elements in their psychedelic lambastings of the society around them.
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Apostrophe'
Review by Gary Hill
Frank Zappa always amazed me. He’d put together some of the greatest musicians in the world and create these incredibly complex musical romps – and yet they’d be equally funny.
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Burnt Weeny Sandwich (vinyl)
Review by Gary Hill
This album, the final credited to The Mothers of Invention, features two vocal tracks, with the remainder of them instrumental.
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Chunga's Revenge (vinyl)
Review by Gary Hill
Released in 1970, this was the third solo album from Frank Zappa. The disc saw the debut of Turtles members Flo and Eddie as part of Zappa's band.
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Freak Out!
Review by Julie Knispel
Prog certainly existed after Freak Out!, but was there anything coming out at the time that did for the boundaries of rock and roll what Freak Out! did? It’s unlikely.
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Hot Rats
Review by Gary Hill
This was Frank Zappa’s second solo album.
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Jazz from Hell
Review by Gary Hill
This is an instrumental jazz album.
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Over-Nite Sensation
Review by Gary Hill
I know some people who think there is no way Frank Zappa is progressive rock. Well, for my money his genre twisting type of music with incredibly complex arrangements – often on seemingly simplistic tunes – certainly fits the bill.
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Roxy and Elsewhere
Review by Steve Alspach
Toward the end of the run of the Mothers of Invention, this 2-LP set was released. Only Zappa would have the -dare I say it? - Unmitigated audacity to release a live album with virtually all new material.
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Sheik Yerbouti
Review by Gary Hill
Outside of Zappa fandom the big claim to fame of this CD (other than the controversy which we’ll get to shortly) was the song “Dancing Fool.”
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Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
Review by Gary Hill
This 1982 Zappa album has some cool stuff. It's probably best known for the song "Valley Girl," which features his daughter Moon Unit on spoken vocals.
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Strictly Commercial
Review by Gary Hill
A compilation of some of the “best” of Frank Zappa’s music, this is a good disc, if you ignore the question of what is really “best.”
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Studio Tan (vinyl)
Review by Gary Hill
This Frank Zappa disc has some trademark sounds. I think the side long "Greggary Peccary" has quite a bit in common with the "...Yellow Snow..." suite from Apostrophe.
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The Grand Wazoo
Review by Gary Hill
An almost completely instrumental album, if anyone has an argument about Frank Zappa landing under prog rock, they really need to listen to this.
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Them or Us
Review by Gary Hill
This is not your standard Zappa disc. Of course, what is that really? .
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Waka/Jawaka (vinyl)
Review by Gary Hill
This disc was the fourth solo album from Frank Zappa. It was released in 1972.
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We're Only in It for the Money
Review by Steve Alspach
America went through a bit of culture shock in 1967, and things were turned upside down. Haight-Ashbury was the place to be if you wanted to reject your parents' lifestyle (for a while, anyway). "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out" was the mantra of the time - hell, even the New York Yankees were in last place for a few weeks.
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Zappa In New York
Review by Julie Knispel
The separation between live album and studio album has always been a fuzzy one when it comes to Frank Zappa. As so many of his “studio” albums were created through the use of individual instrumental tracks (or wholesale lifting of full band tracks) from live performance, it’s often difficult to tell on LP what was recorded in thew studio and what was recorded live.
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Zoot Allures
Review by Gary Hill
This 1976 release was Frank Zappa's only set on Warner Brothers Records. It has the usual type of Zappa weirdness you would expect.
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