Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Trout Mask Replica

THE REVIEW

How to define an album like this, millions of years ahead of everything else? It's better to avoid definitions to prevent immediately falling into the banal, into rhetoric, to avoid drowning in pleonasms and then suffering the abuse of other users. Yet, it is an album that many, too many, consider the greatest masterpiece of all time, and therefore one cannot, must not, remain silent.

It would only take the time to listen to this album in its entirety to appreciate its depth and expressive power. What makes this album so special, unique, is the intrinsic quality of each track present here, as well as the grace of the quartet, never so in form, never so cohesive, and never will be again. Soon (within no more than two years), there will be a spin-off. There’s no need to talk about the songs, now history of music, history of all of us, but I refer to the samples for a review.

It is not a matter of technique, or simply innovation, it is the impressive impact that listening to this music has on the listener, then as today; the synapses cannot simply make the usual rounds, it is necessary that they let themselves go to the new directions this music suggests, and after that, nothing is the same. You can no longer see things with the same eyes, nor hear things with the same ears, you cannot even look into the faces of people you knew with the usual inane expression, now you are different, you have listened to something that has bent you to a different, new logic, you are no longer you. And neither are others. Even your mother struggles to recognize you, because deep down your DNA has also undergone a mutation and you are no longer her child. Your girlfriend has left you, because she was in love with the one who had not yet listened to this album, and now that man is no longer there.

Everything suggests a “Pop Opera” studied at the drawing board. Starting with the cover, kaleidoscopic, a masterpiece worthy of Warhol's works; discussed to death as well, for the usual references to satanism (Crowley) and those to the passing of a member of the band (pure esotericism). Never as in this album have the 4 fabulosos given so much, and never again will they derive so much in terms of success and artistic value.

A standalone work of art, which you can hate or love, yet it stands there making history, and there it will remain whether you like it or not; an insurpassable and unsurpassed benchmark for all that will come after. It’s true, perhaps this album has already been discussed, but deep down doing so this time was a bit like bringing the fans of the beloved team to see the old lady...