9.0/10
I just want to come out and admit from the getgo that Ween is one of my all time favorite bands. I can't really be too objective about them because I just like them too damn much. I genuinely think they're an awesome band, but I've found that outsiders to the cult of the Boognish don't always seem to see their amazingness quite as apparently as I do. Maybe they're a little too weird, vulgar, or silly for some people. But for me the fact remains that they are phenomenal songwriters, they're diverse as hell, Gener is an awesome singer, Deaner is one hell of a guitar player, they're experimental, they can pull off other band's styles better than the bands they're cribbing from, and they're pretty damn funny a lot of the time. Plus they seem like they'd be a lot of fun to hang out with. For the record I would say pretty much the same things about the Beatles.
GodWeenSatan was their first "officially released" album. They'd been making limited release cassette only albums for awhile before this, but those are mostly of interest to die-hard fans only. In their early days they consisted of two friends who posed as fake brothers Gene and Dean Ween. They recorded on 4-track cassettes at home presumably high on drugs and tended to utilize drum machines and other "fake" instrumentation. They would recruit a full band later on, but Gene and Dean would always remain the heart of the band and some fans prefer these early days. I, for one, am glad of the existence of early Ween. It's much more "brown" to use the band's terminology. I'm also glad their later more polished and accessible stuff exists, too.
A lot of what makes Ween "Ween" is already on display here. There are goofy jokes, lots of different styles, some really awesome songs mixed with some weird little experiments, a fondness for messing with the vocals via effects or tape manipulation, and some killer guitar parts. Also lots of screaming and curse words. I can actually understand this album being a little off-putting to the uninitiated. The humor's sometimes kind of crude and frat boy-ish and the screaming could rub you the wrong way if you're not in the mood for it. But one of the things that's great about Ween on all of their albums is that once the shock wears off from the joke or the bad language, there are solid if not amazing songs underneath to be discovered. It's one of the reasons why they are not the "joke band" they're often accused of being. They're a completely serious band that happens to utilize a lot of goofy humor. And for some reason humor in music tends to be marginalized and looked down upon. You can take your "serious" self-pitying emo crybaby band. I'll take Ween.
They really don't hold anything back right from the start. Things get kicked off in full obnoxious fashion with You Fucked Up, in which Gener screams the title along with numerous other vulgar insults. Now this could easily come across as misogynistic, mean-spirited, annoying, or kind of dumb. But the thing is Ween is taking the piss out of this kind of music. There are bands out there who sing stuff like this for real and mean it. Ween is poking fun of this kind of attitude while simultaneously rocking out with a kick-ass guitar part.
There are several other songs that kind of fit into the same sort of vein as You Fucked Up, but there are also a couple of Prince odes, a super twee love song, some faux gospel music, some pretty acoustic music, a 19 second long dead-on impression of Bruce Springsteen, and some just plain weirdness.
At 26 tracks (29 if you have the reissue) and over 70 minutes this is undoubtedly a lot to take in in one sitting. Especially nowadays when everyone's attention spans are shorter. I don't often sit down and listen to the whole thing anymore, but there are some major highlights here. Birthday Boy is just a really phenomenal song. The melody is fantastic in that sends-chills-down-your-spine kind of way and I dig the sound they get on the guitar and the choice to not use any kind of drums pays off as well. Plus there are actual real-world relatable lyrics on display, something Gene in particular would explore more and to good effect as time went on.
Another one I really like is Marble Tulip Juicy Tree. I don't really have a clue what it's about, but it's catchy and has a genuinely awesome guitar solo. I'm not even a big guitar solo type of guy but Deaner's just tearing it up here. I even dig the weird spoken word bit at the end.
I could probably go on a lot more about this album, and it's not even my favorite of theirs. They were really young when they made it and it sounds like they had a super fun time. The enthusiasm is infectious. It's plenty weird, but it's not even close to the weirdest Ween album. And if you don't like this one, you still shouldn't write them off because they sound completely different from album to album and even song to song. They're Ween, damn it, and they rule.
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