Review Summary: Primus returns with a new drummer, compressed production, and a new set of mildly impressive tales.
1997 brings forth a new album by California trio Primus. Tim "Herb" Alexander has unfortunately departed from the band, leaving the band with a new drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia. After the excellent, but flawed "Tales of the Punchbowl", Primus won't call it off even when Tim has left. Like all of their albums, the record explores a new and different sound than the one before. However, this one is immensely different. The band has explored a new theme altogether, and with Brain Mantia on the kit this time, it is truly changed. But as lovely as that is, this album marks the beginning of the end for Primus.
With Brown Album, Primus has discarded the jammy roots of Tales from the Punchbowl and have almost completely changed their sound. Sure, with the slap bass rhythms, wailing guitars, thumping drums and yodeling vocals, you can tell this is still Primus behind the instruments. Les's bass is impressive as always, but it definitely sounds like it's horribly out of tune on every song. That might be intentional, however it's bothersome, even if the bass parts are nice, but novelty sounding instead of funky. Larry's guitar parts are nice also, but not as interesting as before. He's stuck to the plain riffs, with a few virtuous solos and a few parts that stick out (Fisticuffs). Bryan is definitely not a bad drummer at all. He isn't as good as Tim, but he can still fuse some funky rhythms and pounding drum parts. The performances are all superb, however they seem downgraded on this record than they were before.
The main flaw crippling the album is the songs however. It starts strong but becomes really, really boring, and crammed with uninteresting filler. "The Return of Sathington Willoughby" references a filler on Frizzle Fry, and is a strong opener. While being a strong opener however, that's all it's really utilized for; to be an introduction. The album soars so high with "Fisticuffs", which recalls Pork Soda to no ends. The funky bass, captivating guitars, catchy drums and dark feel, Fisticuffs is the best on the record. With "Golden Boy" and "Over The Falls," the album continues to offer with memorable tracks. "Shake Hands With Beef" even impresses, but the album falls flat after that. The same issue that plagued Tales, the second latter of Brown Album is really, really forgettable. "Camelback Cinema" is a hectic and annoying track that goes nowhere, and "Hats Off" just continues it. The songs become filler instead of actually captivating songs, even "Puddin' Taine,", while not being bad, doesn't exactly impress either. The songs on the record just don't have anything that captivates the listener, and end up becoming uninteresting filler songs. They attempt to have a very country-like feel while maintaining the sound Primus had already established before, but don't quite do it.
The album has a prief pickup in the song quality, however. "Bob's Party Time Lounge," is an exciting song with different twists and turns, and "Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread," is a truly great track. "Restin' Bones" is an unfortunately boring track for the most part, with some good parts in it that only mildly impress. "Coddingtown" is the heaviest song you'll get on the record, but ends up contending to the albums reocurring plague, that it sounds like a filler song. "Kalamazoo" and "The Chastising of Renegade," are both great and catchy songs, that contain upbeat melodies that do have the listener grooving along. The album unfortunately ends horribly with the awfully boring "Arnie", that has uninteresting instrumentation and dull vocals. The issue with some of the songs is that they're devoid of any interesting factors to the songs. Primus was able to tweek with their songs to make them interesting and fun in the past, and they still do so here, but some fail a bit. The compositions read more like a broadway play then an album strung with songs, and while that may be the point, some tracks feel empty of any virtuosity, and start to sound uninteresing.
One of the major problems is the production. It's just super ***ing compressed and it ruins some qualities of the songs. The drums sound like they're full of mud, muffled and dry. The bass sounds really downtuned and compressed also. The guitar is mostly safe from the awful sound production, but with some of the repetitive and uninteresiting guitar parts, it won't even matter. However, there is still a lot of positivity to talk about the record. When this album shines, it does so brilliantly. The good tracks on here, such as "Fisticuffs," "Golden Boy," "Over The Falls," "Shake Hands With Beef," "Puddin' Taine," "Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread," "The Chastising of Renegade," and"Kalamazoo,". All the songs that shine on the record really do shine, and are instant Primus classics. The positive song qualities really defeat any negativity this album conveys. These songs are the reasons why this album isn't rated a 3 or a 2.5, because if these songs weren't truly awesome, this album would be a steaming pile of ***, so nice save Primus. The instrumentation is also great, even when somewhat downgraded. However, the songwriting is equally as strong and not so strong. The album has impressive and unimpressive moments, even if the positivity defeats the negativity.
Brown Album is not perfect. There are some great songs, and some not so great songs. Some sound boring and filler-like, with some factors that really don't captivate. However, some songs are great, with fun chorus and catchy instrumentation. The album is definitely flawed, not recalling old Primus nor offering any new Primus, but even when flawed there are impressive moments that save it from being a pile of ***. The production is also muddy and compressed, and hurt some of the songs moments, but it doesn't matter when the songs end up being truly awesome. The pros of the album bookend the cons in the end, making a pretty good album in the end. Brown Album is not one of Primus's best endeavors, but it does bring up some impressive tracks and fun instrumentation. However, the negatives do shine here. While this album is great, the negatives do hurt, and Brown Album is truly the beginning of the end for Primus.
Favorite Track: Fisticuffs
Least Favorite Track: Arnie
