Review Summary: While keeping their already forged strangeness, Primus transitions to a darker feel and create a superb album out of it.
It's 1993, and Primus has just recovered from being caught in the mainstream wave. They kept their strange traits while improving their songwriting, so no wonder Sailing The Seas Of Cheese was a hit. Primus returns with a new release, and while keeping the tight songwriting and wonky attributes, but also wanted to add a dark twist to it. The sound changed, the lyrical content changed, the songwriting was slightly altered, Pork Soda was a different record for sure. But while Primus wanted to impress with their funky vibes and their weird characteristics, they wanted to give us a little scare.
Pork Soda's songs are noticeably darker. They convey a very uncomfortable feeling than the first two records. Les Claypool has mostly abandoned the snarls and yodels, he has stuck to wails and more focused singing, as his voice echoes and reverb throughout the tracks. Larry has also changed, with his playing being noticeably better than in the previous records. He focuses a lot on ambience, but also keeps his sliding and screechy guitar solos and guitar work that was also found on previous 2 records. He keeps up well with Claypool's fret smacking and haunting singing and Tim's thumping drums. However, the most frightening part to this record is the songwriting and lyrical themes. The funky "My Name Is Mud" tells the tale of a mentally troubled man who murders his friend, the dark "Bob" is about a man who kills himself in his apartment, the hard-hitting "The Pressman" deals with frustration etc. What's great about these tracks is that all the songs on this record are awesome. They keep up with their weird factors such as in "Welcome To This World", which has a fun bass line and wonky guitars. "DMV" is the funkiest of all the songs, with a bouncy bass line and funny lyrics. Everything stays strange, but gets noticeably frightening.
But at the same time, Primus keeps their great musicianship and songwriting intact. "The Ol' Diamonback Sturgeon" is a repetitive song with a warm bass line and quick guitar. "Nature Boy" is a longer track, with a fun chorus and strange lyrics, and has a catchy and enjoyable instrumental section in the middle. The album has a few fillers, such as the percussion ruled "Wounded Knee", intro mandalin and outro mandalin tracks "Pork Chop's Little Ditty/Pork Chop's Little Ditty II", somber bass track "Hail Santa", and banjo ditty "The Air Is Getting Slippery". Some tracks also future upright bass, such as the strange and all-over-the-place title track, that futures gibberish lyrics. "Mr. Krinkle", which is also one of the standout tracks to the record. The album really ends with the fast moving, 8-minute instrumental track "Hamburger Train,". The song features some of Claypool's best bass work, sliding ambient guitar, and a steady drum beat that eventually gets louder and louder and ends on a slow drum outro. It is a very stand out track, and my favorite on the album. Every song proves the band has kept their strange twang, tight musicianship and new found dark themes.
The wonkiness remains intact as Primus makes the listener feel unsettled and uncomfortable. The album is a drastic change in Primus's sound and production, with a lot of echo on the bass and vocals, ambient guitars, thumping tribal drumming, and dark themes. However, even when the change in sound is massive, the weirdness and strong instrumentation remains. The attributes that Primus forged are still here and are used right. However some of the tracks lack atmosphere, and start to sound similar in some ways, which can hurt some of the song qualities. The songwriting remains strong however, and you know this is still Primus playing on this record.
Pork Soda keeps with Primus's goal, which is too make the audience weirded out but able to groove with it. While keeping the core factors in place, Primus went out there and made a dark, but strangely funky record. Larry's screeching guitars, Claypool's echoey vocals and fret-hitting bass, and Tim's pounding and groovy drums are all present and are done well. It gives the record it's own feel, but it loses some of the fun explored on the previous records. The songwriting remains great, but different. The transition Primus takes changes a lot of the themes they explored musically and lyrically, but their skill and songwriting remains great. The performances are all superb, even if somewhat downgraded from the past two albums. Pork Soda isn't the direction some people expected Primus to take after reaching such a high mainstream point. However, Primus has remained in their musical prime, by creating out of the ordinary music that just makes Primus's material better and better. So sit down, grab yourself a can of Pork Soda, and listen away at the strange darkness of this fine record.
Favorite Track: Hamburger Train
Least Favorite Track: The Air Is Getting Slippery
