Hot Rats

Frank Zappa’s work is generally brilliant, but listening to the pure musicality of this mostly instrumental record is especially wonderful. Not that I don’t also love the Captain Beefheart track!

tem sax = boa música.

jazz fusion de ótima qualidade hein. altos solos de altos instrumento, pau quebrando demais.

Clown music made by an absolute clown.

It was too easy to be 'freaky' in the 60's, no wonder boomers are scared of everything now.

White guys who think going 'doot doot doot' over a splashy drum part is jazz love this.

Peaches en pretense legitimately made me say 'fuck off' out loud twice.

Anyone who describes an album as 'a movie for your ears' would be utterly and rightly ridiculed these days. Man would have to be in the top 5 of people I'd least like to have at a dinner party.

As is frequently the case with reviewers, looks like again only Christgau got it right.

I didn’t get any Zappa as a kid because it wasn’t on the radio. I had to hear it as an adult when I could afford the albums. Too bad I missed a lot. This was great to hear again.

This shit is wild

I would describe it as Jazz rock. More enjoyable than Jazz, but after a while still a bit much

This has a real meandering, jam band feel to it which normally puts me off. But there was something about this energy that hooked me. I liked it way more than I though I would. Gumbo Variation drags on a bit longer than needed perhaps, but overall just a great time.

What a relief! Was dismayed to see Frank show up after suffering through a Mothers of Invention album last week.
This album is a pleasant, mainly instrumental, bit of jazzy psychedelic rock music. Turns out not having Frank’s vocals was an essential improvement.
Impressive guitar work here.

Really incredible technical album. Can't say I loved it?

1. The most energetic elevator music I have ever heard

2. Absolutely anxiety-inducing. Couldn't listen to all 9+ minutes

3. This sounds like music for a chase scene shoehorned into a 70s porn. Would have been fine listening to it for a minute until the next scene, not any longer

4. Too many musicians playing different songs at the same time. Not enjoyable

5. If yaks went to blues bars, this would be their favorite saxophone riff. I, as a not yak, am unfortunately not the target audience for this song

6. I like Scandinavian Jazz, French Cafe Jazz, Hard Bop, Cool Jazz, and Jazz Trio (guitar-led AND piano-led). I do not like Anxiety Jazz, which is a genre I hadn't heard until now.

Hard pass on this album, and I fail to understand why it's on this list. Perhaps for inventing Anxiety Jazz..?

Liked this more that I thought I would. 3.17

I’m familiar with Frank Zappa as an influential musician and composer, whose work tends to be either improvisational or satirical. His second studio album Hot Rats leans towards the former, as he went about writing as if it were a soundtrack for a movie.

The album certainly gives that impression of a movie. Starting at the opening credits bombast of “Peaches en Regalia”, we are then introduced to our main character “Willie the Pimp”. This is followed by an action-packed sequence in “Son of Mr. Green Genes”. We have a middle act breather where revelations come about in “Little Umbrellas”, leading to the climax of “The Gumbo Variations”, and followed by the closing credits roll of “It Must be a Camel”. Not only does this album capture the whimsy and excitement of such a movie, but it’s also well executed as Zappa, Ian Underwood and the other session musicians worked wonders for a mostly instrumental jazz fusion album, save for “Willie the Pimp” with the gravelly voice of Captain Beefheart.

The only complaint I have is just how long the climax went for “The Gumbo Variations”, clocking in at nearly 13 minutes. It’s certainly well composed but feels like it goes on for longer than it should.

Still, I enjoyed this movie of an album and wouldn’t mind rewatching it again in my ears. Give it a chance.

Probably the least weird thing I’ve ever listened to by Zappa. I loved this. Very jazzy and groovy.

Zappa, weer zo'n artiest waar ik veel meer over heb gehoord dan van gehoord. Het schijnt chaotisch te zijn. Maar ik ga het nu ervaren, nu het door de 1001 naar mij toe wordt gebracht. Leuk.

Dit album eerst afgespeeld tijdens het schilderen. Op beperkt volume, want de buren zaten ook buiten. Prima klus-plaatje op die manier. De jazzy stukken maken de plaat. Maar het rockende Willie the Pimp laat weer een andere kant zien. Het is inderdaad wel erg druk.

Daarna luister ik het in de auto en wat harder. Dan vallen de aparte geluiden met wat meer op. Een ratel hier, een telefoon (?) daar. En (misschien omdat het de tweede keer is dat ik het luister), erger ik me soms aan wat buiten de band springende instrumenten, vooral aan het einde.

Het is dus inderdaad wel wat chaotisch, maar ook weer niet te gek. Je moet hier vooral het juiste moment voor vinden. Ondanks het ontsporende gevoel aan het einde, lijkt dit toch alle aandacht gekregen te hebben en zou ik het een kwaliteitsplaat durven noemen.

Frank Zappa as a horror clown? The album is much older than Pennywise. I like some of Frank Zappa's stuff. Some of it is certainly brilliant, but too exhausting for me. That's how I felt about this album. I listened to it all the way through. Some things were great. In the end, I was glad I'd finished it. I probably won't listen to the album again so soon.
3/5

Not what I was expecting, quite pleasantly surprised.

Well, I don't really know what I expected, but it wasn't this. I've heard about how "weird" Zappa was for years, but I definitely didn't expect a jazz-adjacent instrumental album. It's not bad, I'll start there. It's "experimental," sure, but not so much so that it's weird. There are horns, there are some odd time signatures thrown in, it all tends to be a bit free flow-y, but it's pretty standard stuff, really. A couple songs kind of give me a bit of a Phish vibe, which is blech, but overall, It's really just fine.

Really enjoyed majority of this album, until the end where I absolutely hated the rogue saxophone going wild

Shame because it would have scored higher!

3 ⭐️

Frank Zappa seems to be sort of controversial, with a lot of people lauding him as a genius and others simply calling his music noise. It's not mainstream by any means. I feel like most musicians would love this album, the average everyday music fan probably not as much. From interviews and things I've seen about Zappa, he seems like he would have been a really interesting guy to sit down and talk to.
For this album specifically - amazing guitar playing. And the tones he gets are unbelievable. Just fantastic throughout and really made me want to listen to this as loud as my ears would allow. Also Max Bennett on bass has to be mentioned - although the basslines are not super complex they are really interesting and played to perfection. Great bass tone too. Particularly on Willie the Pimp. That song has a groove that can't be beat.
Production on this album is great as well, nothing overshadows anything else, sound quality is good, levels are balanced. Zappa said this album was "a movie for your ears" and that's certainly an apt description. It sort of devolves into a little more avant garde in the second half that I think most people wouldn't really care for but I like it. The horns on the second half of the album are great, but again not to everyone's taste.
This is a hard one for me to rate because while I love it, I'm not sure I would give it 5/5. This is another case where we need ratings out of 10. This would be a solid 9/10 for me but I don't think I could rate it a 5/5. Maybe more like 85/100.

Peaches in Regalia sounds like the soundtrack for an indie sidescroller game. Not a fan of Van Vliet's vocals on Willie the Pimp but its only a small portion of one track.

Most of the rest of this is jazz, more or less. I found bits of it enjoyable, but mostly self indulgent.