ive never heard this album and i dont want to

but now

"Mamamamammaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnuscrrrrrript replica"

is in my head

I remember checking this album out from the local public library just after I graduated high school or in my early years of college. It was the early phase of listening to all the critically acclaimed albums I had missed or were too young to initially hear.
I concur with many people on here. I don't get it, but have a friend who loves it. He tends to be more proggy, so that might be the case.
As for the Stooges, I have never thought their music was brilliant, but their attitude and showmanship was for that era.

It's so good. Whoever called his rambling singing is sadly mistaken. I think of it more like poetry. A reading, rather than an attempt at singing. It's a fun album. It makes me laugh, but it's incredibly innovative and in my opinion (or out of all of the albums i've heard of his which is the majority) it's probably the weirdest.

Try Safe As Milk, that's probably the safest one. If you like blues, especially Howlin Wolf, you'll love it.

Safe as BLUE Milk???

That's right, The Mascara Snake.

I'd rather listen to this:


Trout Mask, to me, is something to appreciate on an academic level. I don't think it was ever supposed to be enjoyable like a Stones record you throw on late night when you want to do coke and drink PBR.

And Rads... Animal Collective, at least the last two records, is WAAAAAY more listenable than Trout Mask Replica. If you'd give it some time, you'd realize it's really great psych-pop.

Liars are a bit more sinister and in some ways more aggressive about their style. I can see how some might be turned off by it, but it just hits me in the right place in my brain.

Joanna Newsome just plain blows.

this thread reminds me of a story about when I was in highschool. In high school me and a few of my friends were in a band that mostly played classic rock influenced type punk stuff and we practiced in my house in my garage. One day while we were messing around after practice in my living room my dad comes in and puts some Captian Beefheart on the stero and tells us we should learn to play like this, it was one of the most embarresing things that has ever happened to me.

He isn't my boyfriend anymore. Keep up, man, keep up!

Echoing what a few others have said, I really enjoy parts of TMR, especially the guitar. There are some songs which are really awesome and unique and could pretty much only exist on an album like this. There are some other rambling, throwaway-seeming things but it's all necessary as part of the big, strange beast that is TMR.

I didn't really like it very much at first, either, but gradually parts of it started to hit me until I eventually gained an appreciation of the whole thing.

It was my introduction to Beefheart and my favorite for while, but now that distinction goes to Clear Spot and Ice Cream for Crow.

In some ways, I react to TMR like I did to "The Drift" by Scott Walker, which was my intro to him so I had no idea what to expect going in and was justly turned on my head.
It's just so far afield from what I and most others think of when it comes to casual, easy to swallow music that you listen to while working, exercising, driving, etc. It's stuff that needs to be examined and wallowed in to be fully appreciated and often that's not my inclination.

But "Drift" seems somehow more endearing to me and I want to get to know it better.
TMR has in no way done anything to bring me back to it.

Yeah, but The Drift is a much more "professional" sounding record on a lot of levels. It's all very meticulously structured and layered. Walker's voice is very rich and polished, if overly operatic. I found that album to be more appealing over time, too, but in a very different way than TMR.

With The Drift, the production, arrangements, and general instrumental sound continued to grow on me while his voice/lyrics just sort of became less and less of a problem. It wasn't so much a process of the record congealing as a whole but of positive elements of the overall sound eventually overshadowing the negative. That sort of happened with TMR, too, but it was more a deciphering of the whole from the various parts until it all started to make sense. At first it sounded like everyone was playing a different song, but after a while it started to sound more and more like a bunch of people interpreting the same song in a bunch of different ways at once, sort like free jazz. And I think sometimes it works amazing well. It's a great artifact of a time when experimenting with rock music meant more than just adding electronic noises.

It's definitely not my cup of tea (surprise, surprise). And though I'd rather hear my own bones breaking than listen to it, I can see how people can put it on a pedestal and admire it.

Heard some samples of this on occasion. I guess my ordeal is that it just sounds like the kind of record that would need to have a monopoly over my "music listening" time for a good month or so in order to hope for some kind of connection - if it's even destined to happen. I don't really have that kind of time anymore. Too much music to listen to, too little time. Shame I guess.

I dunno, I just think you need to be able to throw it on four of five times over a very extended period of time (could be weeks or months apart) in very different settings, listening to the whole thing in its entireity. There are, at the very least, some really funny and bizarre lines from it that'll stick in your head. Even if you don't like it, I think it could be worth the effort for those alone.

There are much easier inroads to Beefheart, though. Safe as Milk has already been mentioned, and I'd add Clear Spot which has a nice mix of accessibility and weirdness.

My smile is stuck
I cannot go back t' yer Frownland

I like this album loads. It goes fast for being 79 minutes. It sounds great in the car, or alone at home really loud.


I have to say I'm seeing a lot of the old subjective/objective issues in this thread. 10 times out of 10 I would rather listen to this album than OK Computer, or Arcade Fire, but I'm not saying it's better, it's just better for me. Seriously, how can you argue with, or question someone's taste. Also, the notion that somone would claim to like something just to appear 'cool' or whatever is sort of silly.

Polka, Bobby will be the first to tell you he CAN'T keep up. He wants to run after the ice cream truck but the truck too fast.

Like when Bobby Hill tried to run and jump on Hank's propane truck, and they had to slow it down to damn near 0 for him to catch up.