Review Summary: Is it possible that Les has become...too weird?
Let me get this out of the way right off the bat: I am a moderate Les Claypool fanboy. I may not own everything by him (in fact, I know a very small percentage of his large output of material), but Primus is probably the single most important band in the world to me, and I love the Frog Brigade too. The man is the reason I play bass and the reason I listen to strange music. But at this point in his long career, Claypool seems to have become consumed by a desire to make the darkest, most experimental, inaccessible and downright strange music he's ever written. Basing his songs off of the music he wrote for the video game "Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars," Claypool's second solo record finds him breaking away from the jam band feel of most of his side project. And you can forget about sounding like Primus--they sound about as bizarre as AC/DC in comparison to this.
Completely lacking in electric guitars, calling this album "rock" would be a stretch. It seems that over the last 20 years, Claypool has created a genre all to himself. Utilizing instruments such as cellos and xylophones, as well as his trademark bizarre bass effects, he can rip through more accessible fare such as "Amanitas" (the best song here), or add a bouncy atmosphere to morbid tales like "You Can't Tell Errol Anything" and "Ol' Rosco."
With all this crazy experimentation going on, this must be an interesting album to listen to, right? Actually, no. As outrageous as everything going on sounds, it can become tedious to listen to after a surprisingly short while. Some of the tracks are frankly boring, such as the unfunny political satire (who still cared about Sarah Palin in March?) of "Red State Girl." Besides the occasional change of sound--for example, Gogol Bordello singer Eugene Hutz's appearance on "Bite Out of Life"--everything begins to feel a bit too similar about halfway through the album.
Les Claypool is still an incredibly skilled musician and gifted lyricist, but it has become clear that he is making music mainly for himself, content with his status as an icon to bassists and fans of weird music alike. While it is true that any musician should be making music for themselves, and although Claypool has always made niche music anyway, it is still odd to hear an album that proposes quite this much of a challenge to the audience froms someone successful enough to make a living in the music business. If you're a Claypool diehard or in need of something bizarre, give this a listen. Otherwise, you're better off with Primus or one of his many other projects.
