One Size Fits All

One Size Fits All is a 1975 rock album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. It is the tenth and last studio album released under the name of that band.

This record marked the end of Zappa’s early 1970s style before his shift to the more sex-driven humor of his later works of the decade. The tone of the record is wonderfully set by the album cover, which depicts floating debris and a large sofa over an outer space backdrop. The record has lush production, complex instrumental and vocal arrangements, and an even high quality, all used to build up tracks whose lyrical content ranges from bizarre to hilarious. Zappa’s soloing skills are front and center on “Inca Roads,” “Sofa,” “San Ber'dino,” and “Andy,” while his satirical wit is sharpest on “Po-Jama People.”

This album has often been analyzed as a satirical take on progressive rock at the time, with its humorous riffs on the preoccupation with space, recurring motifs bookending records, and otherwise insular subject matter. Despite this, it has been praised as something of a progressive work in itself, with Allmusic calling it “as close to prog” as Zappa ever got.

A fan favorite, this is the culmination of Zappa’s more commercial works post Flo and Eddie, a clear progression from, yet in the same vein as, Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe (‘).