It can be hard to put a record like Captain Beefheart’s magnum opus, Trout Mask Replica, into words.
Possibly the greatest avant-garde album ever made—certainly one of the most influential—it exists in a state of perpetual nonsense, whether by the torturous, cult-like conditions Beefheart imposed on the members of his Magic Band—like trapping them in an L.A. house and torturing them to the edge of insanity—or by the music itself, which is so utterly confounding at times that I can’t even begin to describe it.
So, I won’t.
Instead, I’ve compiled the best YouTube comments on the album that really get to the core of what Trout Mask Replica is:
- “It’s like each member improvised an entire album but in a separate building.”
- “I love how the commercial prior to this video was for a headache pill.”
- “It sounds like it was a normal funky jazz album on vinyl but it was put in a microwave for like a minute.”
- “Listening to this album is like trying to remove your own wisdom teeth.”
- “This sounds like bunch of lunatics taking over a music store while high on acid. What a glorious noise.”
- “This is like watching a drunk driver swerve between lanes, where one is actual songs, and the other is oncoming traffic. It’s fun.”
- “Tapping your feet to the music: The Final Boss.”
- “Like a drunk homeless man hijacked the high school talent show.”
- “Head bangs in four different time signatures.”
- “Bob Marley made this high on glue.”
- “It’s like if Daniel Johnston had access to more than 2 instruments.”
- “The alternate title for this album is Riddles for Dickheads.”
- “It’s like chaos theory in musical form.”
Happy 50th birthday to the greatest worst album of all time.
Raghav is a high school student in Ohio who loves music and writing about it. He also writes music reviews on his Instagram account. Has a soft spot for anything touched by Dan Bejar.