Review Summary: The beginnings of an unstoppable force: of awesome
Where do I even start? This was the first album by the masters of multi-genred music, Ween. These guys are geniuses, and if you really pay attention you can tell on this record. Now don't get me wrong, this is a comedy record, the whole point of the record is to make you laugh. But as a nice addition these songs are ridiculously catchy for the most part. You see, Dean and Gene Ween are geniuses when it comes to writing pop music but nobody knew it when this album came out, perhaps not even them.
"You ***ed Up" starts off the album and it kind of gives you a taste of what the album is there for. It's short, packed full of profanity and has a simple yet catchy guitar riff that gets stuck right in your head. When I first bought this record 3 or 4 years ago this was the only song I liked, because it was the only song that sounded like angry punk rock before it went into childish novelty.
Don't run away yet! The rest of this album is pretty great whether it's childish humor like "Tick" stories of weird assed angry people wanting to move "I'm In the Mood To Move" or whether its a sped up love ballad "Don't Laugh (I Love You)", this album gets into your head after a few listens and just won't leave.
However, at about the halfway point the album gets really ***ty. "Nicole" is a 9 minute doo wop ballad, and it ***ing sucks. Here's the reason why: It's 9 minutes long and doesn't do anything interesting at all. It's just a repeating bassline and the same vocal melody repeating for a seemingly endless amount of time. Oh, but the ***-fest doesn't end there! "L.M.L.Y.P." is another 9 minute boredom fest, but this time it's just sleazy sex humor. I hate disco as it is, but the lyrics in this song make it even worse. Yeah the lyrics aren't that profane or anything, but combined with the sound of the song it just makes you feel filthy when you listen to it.
Thankfully after "L.M.L.Y.P." The quality of the songs not only gets better, but rises above anything else on the album. "Birthday Boy", "Hippy Smell", "Squelch The Weasel", and "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree" are the best songs on the album. "Birthday Boy" shows the roots of their love of prog, "Hippy Smell" shows the roots of the type of stuff that would end up on White Pepper, "Squelch The Weasel" sounds like ***ing Jethro Tull for Chrissakes. But what's the best is "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree", it's a ***ing pop song and it's fantastic! The hook there is just so irresistable. Now! That's What I Call Music...is a really ***ty compilation series.
