The Mothers of Invention

Uncle Meat

The music feels exactly the same as the album art. It's chaotic, experimental, complex, and fucking awesome. I don't even know what I just listened to, but it's gotta be one of Zappa's best projects yet. It also includes his first super long track, despite being split into parts, the incredible free jazz song "King Kong" clocks in at a whopping 18 minutes and 13 seconds. This album certainly shows Frank venturing into even wilder territory than he was in before, and it's incredible. I ... read more

I'm not sure how one would feasibly cover everything going on with the album Uncle Meat efficiently. A two hour extravaganza (if you listen to the expanded CD version, which you should) from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, even half of an album from the same crew can be difficult to put into words. That leaves Uncle Meat one of the most dense and chaotic works of music imaginable from a group who made a career out of dense and chaotic work.

The first portion of Uncle Meat comprised ... read more

i feel like pitchfork listening to The Mars Volta while listening to this fucking album. i just, do NOT get it. at all. and i feel like i have so little to say too, this album just eludes me.

what is this? well, it's Uncle Meat! an album by Frank Zappa and his band of weirdos, i think? honestly, i have absolutely 0 knowledge of Frank's music, other than the few things i've heard from some of deep cuts' videos. shit like instead of giving the musicians music, Frank just gave them words to make ... read more

"Sleeping In a Jar" is a 50 second song and it's the most glorious 50 seconds in music. Frank Zappa and The Gang's insane skill managed to cram in 5 smaller songs in that time.

The entire album is pretty much that. A compilation of small songs forming together to make one big song. Like a puzzle coming together. And then you find out the completed puzzle is a man flipping you off.

There is no "Uncle Meat sound" it's a whole lot of insanity all bundled together. We got ... read more

7/10

classic

Fav tracks: Main Title Theme, Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution, Dog Breath ..., The Legend Of The Golden Arches, The Dog Breath Variations, Sleeping In A Jar, The Uncle Meat Variations, Electric Aunt Jemima, Prelude To King Kong, A Pound For A Brown On The Bus, Mr. Green Genes, The Air, Project X, King Kong (The Gardener Vatieties)

Very good.

My Frank Zappa Deep Dive 7/?? (500th review special)
After the success they achieved with their last 2 albums, The Mothers of Invention achieved recognition from their piers and new commers onto the scene alike, something that many wish for, but never have and never will achieve. With all of this put into their minds, Frank Zappa and his band finally came to a conclusion and said a nice fuck you. This and Frank's next album are an complete refining of what their career ment and its overall what ... read more

What am I supposed to say about this?
Mr. Bungle based their whole sophomore album on this thing, didn't they? If not, they at least had to be aware of it.
The King Kong sections were really cool pieces of Jazz, for the record.
Favorites: nine types of industrial pollution (track 3), Sleeping in a jar, The Dog breath variations, The Air, Mr. Green Genes
Least favorite; Any of the skits, but if i had to pick a musical one, Project X. It started off so pretty but turned for the worse quickly.

#34 Of Jamal's Top 100 Favorite Albums

Uncle Meat portrays everything weird about Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention and how creative they were back in the 60s were no one dared to make a album as weird as this with the fear of not becoming mainstream

Fucking weird

I've listened to Zappa's album for a musical that never materialised and now onto his soundtrack for a film that never materialised.

Unlike Thing-fish, this album is not covered in shit dialogue and instead acts as an actual soundtrack, as it is mostly instrumental. Now there are skits here and there but none of them get in the way of the music. You have to take the fact this is a movie soundtrack into account.

Of course, what kind of hip-hop fan would I be if I didn't say Sleeping In a Jar ... read more

Not only is Uncle Meat one of the first Avant-Prog albums but it also invented skits, change my mind.

Track Review

Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme 9.5/10
The Voice of Cheese 9/10
Nine Types of Industrial Pollution 9.5/10
Zolar Czakl 10/10
Dog Breath, In the Year of the Plague 10/10
The Legend of the Golden Arches 9.5/10
Louie Louie (Live At the Royal Albert Hall In London) 8/10
The Dog Breath Variations 9.5/10
Sleeping In a Jar 9/10
Our Bizarre Relationship 8/10
The Uncle Meat Variations ... read more

One of rock's masterpieces, an endlessly creative and batshit experience. The Mothers of Invention are in top form, and the compositions herein are some of their best; Mr. Green Jeans, Electric Aunt Jemima, Cruisin' For Burgers, The Dog Breath Variations, the entire King Kong suite...it's miraculous from beginning to end.

A brief side note: the spotify version of this album includes excerpts from the film. As far as I know these aren't in the original album.

An absolute beast of a release which definitely overstays its welcome. The King Kong section has never grabbed me like some of Zappa's other epics.

The first 45-50 minutes is some of the most far out stuff Zappa ever attempted. It's nice to write about engaging avant-garde music after recently reviewing some awful Beatles solo stuff from the same period. For all the experimentation, it's the live stuff that's included in my track picks. The 'Ian Underwood Whips It Out' title makes me laugh a ... read more

Shout out King Kong.

Funny madvillain sample

Hello teenage America, my name is Suzy Creamcheese
(Violent Cough)
I'm Suzy Creamcheese because I've never worn fake eyelashes in my whole life
And I never made it on the surfing set, and I never made it on the Beatnik set either
And um, actually I really fucked up in europe
(Bone-chillingly aggressive snorts and rumbles)
Now that I've done it all over, and nobody else will accept me,(demon noises) I've come home to my mother's

If this album is good enough for MF DOOM, It’s good enough for my chaotic brain

Zappa's 'White album', in the sense that it's haphazard tracklist has little sense or consistency - although it somehow manages this sense while also having a strong thematic base, many of the songs acting as variations on a few riffs and melodies.

Most of the songs feel like parodies of music genres that either don't exist yet or exist only in Zappa's mind. The 'songs' that open each side are the easiest to grab on to, dementedly psychadelic but at least in a recognisable form. 'Sleeping in a ... read more

Wow, I put this off for too long. Everyone was right saying there’s no way to “properly review” this album as there just isn’t. It is all over the place and a genuinely funny and creative experience. You’re there for the ride and it is just mind blowing. Thank you Zappa and The Mothers.

This is legitimately one of my favorite albums ever. It's the first Zappa album I had heard (which was a strong introduction to Zappa's work) and I pretty much fell in love with it the moment it turned on. I'm crazy over the extremely meticulous and experimental sound of this album and it's inspired me so much in my own personal journey of music creation. Knowing the background information about this album really heightened my enjoyability of this album as well. It's definitely not everyone's ... read more

This album is really difficult to review, mainly because there’s just so much going on. Too many instruments to count, too many songs, and too many styles are on this thing to really take account of. This is possibly the most free jazz-inspired Zappa release I’ve heard so far, ahead of the more tightly structured and arranged ‘Hot Rats’ of the same year which is just as jazz-influenced, but less wild. The musicianship is so impressive at so many different points, and ... read more

wut

If bugs bunny was a TV show about a crack-addicted bunny and his "adventures", that would be its soundtrack.

In all seriousness now, the critics must be fucking with us at this point. They probably meet up and agree to give bad albums high ratings just to see our reactions, as part of a social experiment. Will we go crazy over time, or will we start to agree with them, because of our need to belong to the "cool club"?