The Pod

8.5/10

  Okay I'm just going to come out and say that this was a damn hard album to get into.  The songs are dark, murky, and slow as hell and there are a lot of them on here.  Additionally the vocals have pretty much been messed with on every single track, often through tape manipulation.  They are either sped up, or as is often the case, slowed down.  Even the backing tracks seem to have been slowed down on many songs.  And the subject matter tends to be really weird.  There's a whole running theme throughout several of the songs of pork roll egg and cheese on a kaiser bun.  It's there to such an extent that this is almost a concept album about pork roll egg and cheese.  This could very well be the weirdest Ween album and that's saying something.  At the first listen it's pretty much impenetrable.  There is humor here but it's not quite as overtly goofy as it is on some of their other albums.  It definitely took me a little while to get to like this one.

  But the thing is once you do manage to wrap your brain around it there are a ton of really good songs on here.  It takes a little effort on the listener's part to get a handle on this thing, but there is a reward for putting the work in.  Looking at it now almost every song has something to recommend it, and many of them are flat out fantastic.  Plus it's more diverse than it initially seems.

  The popular theory is that Gene and Dean had a nasty case of mono and were also huffing scotch guard as they recorded this and that's why everything's so murky and weird.  The song Mononucleosis seems to lend credence to part of this as it would appear to be a somewhat factual account of one of the guys suffering from mono and the other guy offering his sympathy.  It's a nice showing of friendship and solidarity and it's actually got a hell of a melody to go along with it.  The scotch guard huffing part seems to have been a hoax, although it also seems to be reinforced by the cover, which is worth mentioning in and of itself.  It's quite simply the cover to Leonard Cohen's greatest hits album, with a picture of one of their friends with a scotch guard bong mask pasted right over Cohen's head.  It's not too subtle and it's not like they recreated the picture.  They used the original artwork and just plastered another head on top of it.  I read somewhere that Leonard Cohen was aware of it and thought it was funny, which is pretty cool.

  Some of the more accessible tunes on here include Pork Roll Egg and Cheese, which is probably the first song I was able to really embrace, because it's got an undeniable catchy pop melody, even as the subject matter remains weird and silly.

 Sorry Charlie was fairly easy to grasp as well.  It's a pretty straightforward song with some fairly relatable lyrics.  They seem to kind of muffle the sound on it a little though, so it seems really quiet at first.  It does increase a bit in volume as it goes along.  It might be the closest thing here to a normal song.

  There's also some good rockers on here in the form of Dr. Rock and Captain Fantasy.  Both of these tracks were staples of their live show late into their career and they lended themselves well to the live format.  But they're both pretty awesome as they exist here.  Sketches of Winkle actually rocks pretty hard, too.  Just thought I'd mention that.

  Elsewhere the tape manipulation-heavy Molly is one of the craziest songs I've ever heard, especially with its numerous pauses that trick you into thinking the song is over, before it kicks right back in again.  Pollo Asado is goofy as hell, but surprisingly listenable considering it consists of a couple of dudes who sound extremely stoned ordering Mexican food and screwing up the money transactions.  It's oddly funny especially since they make no attempt to change the voice of what is presumably several different customers.  I don't know if that's some sort of commentary on our consumer culture or if it's just drugged out ridiculousness.  Maybe a little of both.  It would seem like a track that would get old really quick, but I actually still enjoy listening to it.

  I honestly like almost every song on here, but I do want to give a shout out to Frank, Laura, Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World, Alone, and She Fucks Me.  Heck, I even dig the two Stallion songs, although they're pretty damn weird.

  At the end of the day I have to say this album kicks ass, but I sure as hell wouldn't recommend it to someone who's new to Ween.  I probably wouldn't play it around your mom either, unless she's a cool mom into weird music.  It's just too damn out there and I can see it being off putting for sure.  But once you kind of get what Ween's all about you're going to absolutely want to hear this one.  It's a really warped version of rock and pop music, and it's pretty unique.  It's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I for one am glad these bizarre mutant songs exist.