Beefheart is coming!

Ordered Trout mask replica last night

After the thread over on GH asking for reccomendations, the general vibe was pretty much "get any and all"

Was only £3.50 so got to be worth a shot

 

MO! you are a top man.

You may hate it on first listen (it's definitely his most, ahem, "difficult" album). Give it time.

Matt Groening of Simpsons fame described his experience of it brilliantly, one that was close to mine: the first time he heard it he thought it was horrible, the second time he thought, hmm, there must be a reason why they wanted it to sound like this, the third time he began to like it, and the fourth time he decided it was the greatest album ever made, an opinion he's never altered, apparently.

Even if you don't like it, you *must* get Clear Spot, crank up the volume, and listen to Big Eyed Beans From Venus. A man hasn't lived until he's done that...

-- Ian

 

Just had it playing. Wasn't able to give it full attention as been doing other stuff. Background music? hehe!

What can I say? :MILD: It's definitely going to need further listening. But at the same time it's definately worthy of it! I can see where the whole give it time comes from. I tend to enjoy the MOre challenging albums. This will need work! But I can already see MOself liking this!

Further reports to follow........

 

A squid eating dough...

Trout Mask is a truly bizarre album, it may even be the most bizarre. It took me absolutely ages to 'get it', I'm talking years! I found the more I concentrated on it and the harder I tried to like it the harder it got – I could tell it was special from day one, but it's so relentless that it almost puts up a fight with the listener. For me the breakthrough was listening to it in a very holistic way, i.e. not concentrating on individual instruments at all but letting the whole thing kind of wash over.

I also find the CD far harder to listen to than the vinyl, this isn't just my normal bias towards the black stuff, I just don't rate the mastering much. I have the current 180g reissue and am trying to find a nice original pressing, the 180g cut is way more groovy than the CD. I remember borrowing an original pressing years back and thinking it sounded a lot more inviting – I suspect the 180g issue is still a digital master, albeit a pretty good one.

Stick with it, it's one of a kind!

Tony.