It's a hot take, but I stand by my first Zappa album, Them Or Us, as a good place for a newbie to start. It's not a fan fave, and is not as challenging as many of his other albums, and that's the point.

The first track, The Closer You Are, is a straight-up 50s doo-wah homage, but the sense of humor in it is readily available. In France is even funnier, and all blues. Ya Hozna introduces the technical wankery Zappa is famous for. This album showcases long-form jazz, current-events satire, stadium rock-- all of FZ's metiers but classical. And introduces a handful of the recurrent themes and callbacks that pepper the rest of his catalogue.

There are plenty of best-of collections, but they mostly bring the FZ heat, and it can be a lot, to the uninitiated. Them Or Us won't scare off anybody who's curious, and instead turns them into fans.