WEEN: QUEBEC (REVIEW)
March 7th 2007 00:30
WEEN
QUEBEC
(2003; SANCTUARY)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) It’s Gonna Be A Long Night / 2) Zoloft / 3) Transdermal Celebration / 4) Among His Tribe / 5) So Many People In The Neighborhood / 6) Tried And True / 7) Happy Colored Marbles / 8) Hey There Fancy Pants / 9) Captain / 10) Chocolate Town / 11) I Don’t Want It / 12) The Fucked Jam / 13) Alcan Road / 14) The Argus / 15) If You Could Save Yourself (You’d Save Us All)
A ‘browner’ album was promised before Quebec (2003) was released: ‘brown’ being Ween-speak for their funnier, poop-stained material not fully embraced since 1994’s Chocolate And Cheese. And yeah, that element has creeped back here after the (relatively) serious White Pepper (2000), but they’ve stirred enough genuine beauty into their bubblin’ crude so that the difference is harder to tell than ever.
The goin’ gets tough from the getgo with the Motorhead biker punk of “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night”. Sure, it’s funny, if you’re familiar with the affable hubris of Lemmy Kilmister, but that’s hardly the point. Far from being Weird Al style parody, it’s a loving homage to the dumb days of lawless hedonism and amphetamine-fueled blooze metal. It’s that respect (and the flawless songcraft) Ween put into their material that let’s them get away with just about anything they want to. Like two stoned kids set loose in the candy factory, they can revel in the familiar yet gorgeous lysergic weirdness of “Zoloft,” the plinky, electro-damaged chaos of “So Many People In The Neighborhood,” and the jaunty vaudeville of “Hey There Fancy Pants,” while having the sense only to drink from the chocolate river when it’ll help enhance the trip.
Ween are still fucked-up enough to add lots of psychedelic touches (birdy noises, silly pitch-manipulated vocals, sitar) but straight enough to pen touching, pleasingly emotional (but still kind of trippy) ‘70s guitar rock like “Transdermal Celebration” and “If You Could Save Yourself (You’d Save Us All).” And their switch back to an independent label hasn’t diminished their ability to work the studio, piling sounds upon sounds that give each song a real sense of dynamism and progression; spare, proggy excursions like “Captain” and “Alcan Road” achieving truly haunting beauty. My favourite is “Happy Colored Marbles.” It moves from unsettling deep-vocalled warnings that ‘most people are not ok’ to a sunny helium chorus before submitting to dark, orchestral bombast and aural violence. It’s adorable, but scary, sad, and oddly meaningful, the lyrics seeming to be about giving your marbles to the one you love, presumably so you don’t lose them.
Sure Quebec is inconsistent, but that’s part of Ween’s charm. They jerk you around, but you can be assured that whatever genre-trip they take you on, the songs are going to be great. If you give yourself freely to their confusing world, you might just find giggles building up in your nose until you ejaculate with a sneeze of joy: refreshingly irony-free.
***
IMAGES
Quebec*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
*images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
Quebec
QUEBEC
(2003; SANCTUARY)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) It’s Gonna Be A Long Night / 2) Zoloft / 3) Transdermal Celebration / 4) Among His Tribe / 5) So Many People In The Neighborhood / 6) Tried And True / 7) Happy Colored Marbles / 8) Hey There Fancy Pants / 9) Captain / 10) Chocolate Town / 11) I Don’t Want It / 12) The Fucked Jam / 13) Alcan Road / 14) The Argus / 15) If You Could Save Yourself (You’d Save Us All)
Quebec (2003)
The goin’ gets tough from the getgo with the Motorhead biker punk of “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night”. Sure, it’s funny, if you’re familiar with the affable hubris of Lemmy Kilmister, but that’s hardly the point. Far from being Weird Al style parody, it’s a loving homage to the dumb days of lawless hedonism and amphetamine-fueled blooze metal. It’s that respect (and the flawless songcraft) Ween put into their material that let’s them get away with just about anything they want to. Like two stoned kids set loose in the candy factory, they can revel in the familiar yet gorgeous lysergic weirdness of “Zoloft,” the plinky, electro-damaged chaos of “So Many People In The Neighborhood,” and the jaunty vaudeville of “Hey There Fancy Pants,” while having the sense only to drink from the chocolate river when it’ll help enhance the trip.
Ween are still fucked-up enough to add lots of psychedelic touches (birdy noises, silly pitch-manipulated vocals, sitar) but straight enough to pen touching, pleasingly emotional (but still kind of trippy) ‘70s guitar rock like “Transdermal Celebration” and “If You Could Save Yourself (You’d Save Us All).” And their switch back to an independent label hasn’t diminished their ability to work the studio, piling sounds upon sounds that give each song a real sense of dynamism and progression; spare, proggy excursions like “Captain” and “Alcan Road” achieving truly haunting beauty. My favourite is “Happy Colored Marbles.” It moves from unsettling deep-vocalled warnings that ‘most people are not ok’ to a sunny helium chorus before submitting to dark, orchestral bombast and aural violence. It’s adorable, but scary, sad, and oddly meaningful, the lyrics seeming to be about giving your marbles to the one you love, presumably so you don’t lose them.
Sure Quebec is inconsistent, but that’s part of Ween’s charm. They jerk you around, but you can be assured that whatever genre-trip they take you on, the songs are going to be great. If you give yourself freely to their confusing world, you might just find giggles building up in your nose until you ejaculate with a sneeze of joy: refreshingly irony-free.
***
IMAGES
Quebec*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
*images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
Quebec
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