Search - Ween :: Quebec

How does one encapsulate the mischievous musical conceits of Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, aka Gene and Dean Ween? Infinitely less self-conscious than the smirky They Might Be Giants, yet possessed of a downright Zappa-esque sense of the perverse, Ween returns here from the problematic, if illusory, mainstreaming that characterized 2000's White Pepper to embrace an artistic tack that seems as focused as an errant cluster bomb. While eclecticism for its own sake has often yielded painful self-indulgence, G&D's is sublime enough to seem virtually pre-conscious. The white-trash thrash of "It's Gonna Be a Long Night" dispenses with the expected parody quotient early on, shrewdly clearing the stage for moody doses of psychedelia that are variously driving ("Transdermal Celebration"), dirgy ("Among His Tribe"), and languorously eerie ("Captain"). But, perhaps conscious of reputations to be maintained, those dreamy, chem-friendly spells are variously broken by the perfect '70s country-pop of "Chocolate Town," the pocket epic "The Argus," and tracks that somehow recall both Captain Beefheart and their own haphazard side-career scoring cartoons and other TV fare. There's something here for everyone, to be sure--but closer to Ween's antic hearts, something to annoy everyone as well. --Jerry McCulley