What exactly was Elektra thinking when they released
this?
Ween on a major label is like kicking a puppy, if you think about it.
Maybe that is why I find them so enjoyable at times. Their concept of what sounds good is so twisted, that if you begin to listen to them enough, you'll see everything with Weengoggles. How many times can you listen to "Big Jilm" without thinking about running through the streets of New York City screaming "big jilm!!" out or mimmicking the high-pitching "doo doo doo"s? They're so absurdly infectous, but yet you know that they're probably stoned out of their minds when they made most of these songs. Drum machines are used in almost all of the songs, and Ween again further their experimentations, moving away from the childish noise-making of
GodWeenSatan: The Oneness and well.... being childish again. Psychadelic backdrops clog most of the songs, with plenty of weird sound effects and odd percussive noises to please any audiophile. A good portion of the songs here are laid back and cool, with the "singing" rarely going above a chilled out speak-sing.
Marijuana and Ween go together well, and here on
Pure Guava they don't hold back from their infatuation with well, being Ween. Songs like "Big Jilm" and "Push Th' Little Daisies" are so confusingly catchy that after sometime if becomes mind numbing, to a certain extent. "Raggaejunkiejew" is filled with distort beeps and more crude, Weenian lyrics. Is that a telephone melody? "I Play it Off Legit" is equally as confusing as the other songs here, barely going over a brisk mumble and droning. By this point, you would think that Ween would run out of ideas, right? Well, no. Each song brings something new to the rather...different, table. "I Saw Gener Cryin' in His Sleep" is probably one of the best songs here, a demented psych-folk diddy that is just as funny as it is charming. We also get to rock out with "Touch My Tooter" while "Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)" sounds as if it is a fusion between pop music and prog, with overdramatic singing and psuedo-intellectual lyrics that prove to be more of a parody than anything else.
But, Ween is summed up with the closer track, "Poop Ship Destroyer". A creepy, muted xylophone melody and backwards-taped distortion blips are accompanied by distorted vocals and helium-fused backing vocals. Oh, and fart noises. Live, Ween take it to unbelieve lengths, sometimes nearing 20 minutes. I don't know what exactly
Pure Guava is, but it's pretty ***in' good, if you ask me.
