Hot Rats

Damn, this is a great album! Zappa is such a unique and weird guitar player and a phenomenal composer! Also Captain Beefheart is a perfect addition to this album. I ended up listening to this a few times today and then branched out and gave Safe as Milk a spin for good measure!

It was strange listening to ‘Peaches en regalia’ without Elis James or John Robins welcoming me to their radio 5 show or post great reset podcast.

I enjoyed the next few tracks or at least that's what i though until i looked down at my phone to discover i was still only on track 2.

The Jazz approach to rock left me a bit confused in that i didn’t hate it in the same way as the captain beefheart album i was forced to listen to but dont think i could say i actually liked this.

6 songs, 43 minutes? I can't lie, that's not a good sign in my book. And then 5 out of 6 being instrumentals was another nail in the coffin. And finally, the one song with vocals being sung by Captain Beefheart? It's like a recipe for disaster (or a 1 star rating at least) in my head.

However... I actually quite enjoyed this. Zappa I knew by name but would have struggled to name any of his songs, and therefore simultaneously had no idea what he'd sound like but also never would have expected it to sound like this. It's very funky.

It's getting an automatic 1 star deduction for including a nearly 13 minute track where it sounded like someone was trying to murder a saxophone though.

3/5

Favorite songs: Willie the Pimp, Son of Mr. Green Genes

Least favorite songs: The Gumbo Variations

3/5

Not for me!

I wasn’t expecting to like it but I got my groove on 🕺🏻

Yeah, I’m at a 10.

That was 45 minutes of near-perfect instrumental energy. When you are fully in sync with a band, and truly feeling music as it enters your ears, you’ve hit upon the deepest type of connection you can make with the art form. Every time that happens for me, I know an album is an instant classic to my ears, and there’s no exception here. The only thing I can’t believe is that this is from Frank Zappa, of all people.

Color me deeply surprised; I would’ve never expected it to be Frank Zappa that ended up making such an eclectic jazz fusion album. I’ve admired the guy’s musicianship for sure; neither “We’re Only In It For The Money” nor “Freak Out!” were bad at a technical level. Even the worst rating I gave him was a 3, and it’s only because the former felt like an album I couldn’t really put a number to. To pull out THIS though? For 1969, this feels far, far ahead of schedule, in a way that I can’t really describe, but I can only vaguely guess at.

I wish I could write more, but much like “Hot Buttered Soul”, the music can say far more than I could. If you hit that point of being in sync, you’ll know exactly why. If it doesn’t click by the absolutely electric *violin* solo during “The Gumbo Variations”, then it never will, & it probably was never going to. If it doesn’t, then you probably won’t enjoy this like I did. For my tastes, though? Easy 10.

This is the worst blues album I have ever heard.

This was a really fun record. Glad I listened. Grooved all the way through my commute.

One time some people said to me that this music sucks, so I lined them all up & clonked their heads together like coconuts

Pretty fun

𝘏𝘰𝘵 𝘙𝘢𝘵𝘴 is what happens when Frank Zappa decides to behave — at least a little. Stripped of most of his trademark absurdism (minus a dash of Beefheart chaos and some delightfully odd titles), this album dives deep into jazz-rock fusion with surprising accessibility. Tracks like 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮 don’t just groove — they glide, twist, and sparkle. It’s experimental, yes, but with enough structure to welcome even the Zappa-curious. A wild ride, but one with seatbelts.

Damn, I didn't know Zappa was chill like that.

It feels like a 43 minute long guitar solo, and I say that with every ounce of appreciation in my heart. Damn good funk.

Zappa, especially + Beefheart, is where so much prog rock wanted to go but never could, too bogged down by pretensions, whereas the former, at least on this record, is all about substance and the goods. Few rock/blues artists can take a turn into European classical form w/o either being utterly overwrought or feebly intellectual, but Zappa doesn't go there to be cool, or to learn precision or perfection, but b/c there's something there that has the potential to pop and swing. 'Willie The Pimp' defines a classic, the best instrumentals are 'Little Umbrellas' and 'The Gumbo Variations,' and the whole gestalt does have a cinematic quality (Zappa's design apparently). I only wish we got more Beefheart - I guess he's the ultimate draw for moi.

I really didn’t expect this
First listen was in the car on a long journey. Ok but not really the environment to concentrate on a ‘new’ album. All I can recall about that listen is that there weren't many words. Which I thought was odd since my only real solid experience of FZ is “Joe’s Garage”, which is FULL of words.

Second listen on headphones.
This is what I imagine the Muppet Show band, y’know the one with Dr. Teeth, Zoot, Animal, Floyd, Lips and Janice would release if they made an album. An excellent accompished jam, with all sorts of unusual instrument sounds coming through. Really liked it. But I did miss the studenty lyrics. I think there are more FZ albums on the list I haven’t heard yet. I look forward to them.

It doesn't seem right to call an album featuring a Captain Beefheart vocal and three 9+ minute jams "accessible", and yet, contextually, this still may be the most accessible Zappa record I've heard. I don't know if it's my favorite of his, but it's definitely up there. I'm never personally bothered by the song lengths given a) the energy of the performances and b) their persistent movement. The musicianship is obviously top-notch across the board (shoutouts to Ian Underwood and Sugarcane Harris are certainly in order), but there's a certain rawness to it that isn't always on display in Zappa's music. Big fan.

4/5

Every Zappa album feels different from the others. This is basically a 40 minute over the top jam session, and I love it for that. Zappa's playing is excellent here, as well as the rest of the bands really. I love the energy of it and how its Jazz that sounds like Rock. Captain Beefhearts on Willie The Pimp are nice to hear as well. A lot to love about this one and I keep coming back to it often.

Man, this is a disappointment. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know anything about jazz, nor do I understand why some of it clicks with me, and some of it doesn't, but I know this mostly is just not my style. It feels too schmutlzy, and while I can tell everyone playing is an amazing musician, there are no passages here that feel any more special the prior or future ten minutes of this record. There are bits and pieces of something more, certainly, but I just found this to go from kinda boring to even vaguely annoying by the end, and while it certainly isn't to a degree of hate like Bitches Brew, I still think this isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when I've now interacted with jazz albums that've spoken to me. I was just hoping this album would be one of those jazz albums.

So very Jazzy. The opening track is incredibly smooth, but leads in to a Captain Beefheart appearance. Things get wilder from there.

Not really a Zappa fan, although I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've heard from him before, and when I saw this this morning, was kinda not looking forward to it because just wasn't in the mood for weird progressive, bluesy, jazz rock type stuff.

Not that it's appears on much aside from like the first track, but he has a knack for taking really cliche, overused sounds that come off as super dated and making them sound extremely fresh and interesting.

But its undeniable that this thing is amazing. Definitely gets a bump up for being almost entirely instrumental, although I don't really dislike Zappa's singing, just that sometimes I am not in the mood for it.