CD-Charts Position 1
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The Best of Frank Zappa

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date November 01, 2004
This is a wonderful CD - buy it if you haven't heard Zappa before - it's a great start and a good insight into his work during the 70's. However it's not his "best", even of that period - rather a safe (by Frank's standards) selection of his shorter, more conventional material from a number of albums, including 3 tracks from Overnite Sensation and 2 from Aprostrophe. The tracks feature many of FZ's famous satirical pastiches of a variety of rock genres with his zany, irreverent and rude lyrics, liberal political viewpoints and a lot of blistering guitar solos. Musical highlights are Peaches en Regalia (instrumental), Dirty Love, Yellow Snow, San Ber'dino, Montana, Muffin Man and Cosmik Debris but the hilarious Bobby Brown and Moon Zappa's Valley ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Hot Rats

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
Has to be Zappa's most overrated album! Not nearly as good as "Were only in it for the Money", "Absolutely Free" or "Freak out". Hell its probably not even as good as "Burnt weeny Sandwich"!

CD-Charts Position 3
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One Size Fits All

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
Having listened to most of his work this is the one I have to play on a weekly basis.Sofa No 2 is so full of life.

buy it now

CD-Charts Position 4
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Roxy and Elsewhere

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
I hate live albums, they never seem to deliver the goods in terms of studio versions of the content. In this case (along with Live Dead), I shall make an exception. If I had only ten discs from which I could choose to take to a desert island, Roxy would certainly be among them. The musicianship is outstanding, real 'event horizon' stuff. Then you have the humour. Zappa was so exacting that I doubt very much if the content album could have been better recorded in the studio - that's the magic of Zappa and that's the magic of music. Love it to bits!

CD-Charts Position 5
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Zappa Plays Zappa

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date June 09, 2008
Frank was a genius of that there's no doubt. The clueless ninnies in charge of his legacy should have long ago been thrown into dungeons in the sky. This release only goes to prove how horrid tribute acts really are when they get too big for their boots. if I was watching this band at the Standard in Walthamstow I'd still leave half way through. Ughhh!

CD-Charts Position 6
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Frank Zappa's Jukebox

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date July 28, 2008
This is an essential purchase for Zappa connoisseurs, covering a wide selection of his influences. Though most Zappaphiles will have sourced much of this material independently (Louie Louie, WPLJ, Bacon Fat, The Closer You Are etc.), this is still a worthy purchase. The mixture of doo-wap, R&B, blues, jazz and classical music will be instantly recognisable and at times the album sounds like an early Mothers of Invention release (consider the shift from Louie Louie to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Edgard Varese and Lightnin' Slim).

There are, of course, many tracks which could have been included - there is no John Cage, for instance, and this collection represents Zappa's early influences only, but "Zappa's Jukebox" promotes Zappa's legacy ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Joe's Garage Act I-III

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
I had to share a room with a Zappa fan in college and the songs were funny after a few beers but the musicianship or the melodies never grabbed me by the Colones. Then another Zappa fan introduced me to Watermelon, we heard it with the lights low, our minds up in the clouds and the friend setting off his flash gun at random moments during this extraordinary instrumental. Its 30 years ago and I can remember it like yesterday. Then he said Joe's Garage part 1 was even better. So the next time I had some money(student days) I bought my first Zappa album and was I amazed. I heard it all through the night and I so wanted to express my gratitude to my friend that I wrote him a letter (look it up in wikipedia youngsters) to thank him. There have been very few albums ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Apostrophe

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
"Apostrophe," in its own words, "is an album of songs and stories set to music performed for your dining and dancing pleasure." The first four songs are about an Eskimo that almost makes sense, which makes this something of an actual concept album, at least for the first "side" of the record. What I remember is that "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" was my first exposure to the musical stylings of Frank Zappa (my roommate did the "listen to this" bit with me). The best guitar solos are on "Cosmik Debris," "Stink-Foot," and the title cut. The lyrics are perhaps a dark shade of Zappa than you usually find, but it was 1974 and that could explain it right there since you should look for deep, hidden meanings in the songs of Frank Zappa, but just not in any conventional way.

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CD-Charts Position 9
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Bongo Fury

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
Astonishingly, an FZ album which DIDN'T really grab my attention upon first listening. Subsequently, however, it has grown into one of my absolute favourites. Right up there in the pantheon of the indispensables.

Lots of interesting background in the previous reviews. I didn't realise the FZ/CB rift dated back to this album, but they must have gotten each other's creative juices flowing. This wondrous album features, i would say, some of FZ's finest guitar work. Check out the wicked solos on "Carolina Hard-core Ecstasy" and "Advance Romance", for starters. Marvel to the brilliant "Muffin Man". The Captain is also pretty much at the top of his game, with his zany interventions. Growling and howling his way so menacingly, that you'd wonder if the man isn't totally ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Zoot Allures

by: Frank Zappa

Release Date April 01, 2002
Show me your thumb if you're dumb! Here is one of Zappa's hardest LPs to enjoy; it sounds like a perverted clumsy pastiche of seventies pop at its worst. Like Reuben & The Jets ten years on, Zappa seems to want to ape somebody else's sonic world but this time his target's too up close and personal - instead of a loving tribute Zoot Allures sounds like a slick and cynical covers band. Functional yet joyless, in hindsight these recordings sound very 'out of whack' with Zappa's intricate jazz-rock of the time. And yet, and yet: its very awkwardness is a perfectly-timed (1976) poke in the eye at its own context, neatly sidestepping disco and the 'new wave' at the same time as indulging its own knowing bandwagoneering. Frank has his cake and eats it, with flashes of rock genius that give ... Read More: