Review Summary: Antipop was a very conflicting record, and while it suffers immensely, it offered up some good tunes before Primus shut the door for awhile.
Brown Album was a fine album at best, so Primus is back in the studio once again. Nu-metal has arrived, ripping into teenagers lives. So Primus, eager to put their own sound up with this new movement, threw their prog away. The band moved to a much heavier sound. This wasn't the greatest move for the trio, and it lead to their eventual split. Antipop is considered a sin by most Primus fans (and to a degree, a sin to the band themselves). But is it really that bad? It can't be that bad, can it?
Antipop is one of Primus's strangest releases. Antipop is frighteningly different, and doesn't really sound much like Primus at all. The metal influences (primarily nu-metal) have caused a lot of this record to suffer. It is Primus's darkest record musically, and it causes some performances to suffer. There's no prog, nothing is loose, there's barely any oddity, etc. etc. Antipop has been considered to be Primus sucking up to the nu metal genre arriving onto the airwaves. Desperation to fit with this new movement has caused the musical themes to suffer, and Larry's new guitar direction relays that well. The album is incredibly riff driven, and the wacky solos are toned down very far. Larry doesn't sit well here, with the chugging riffs invading his playing instead of him running freely across the frets. Les is sharp on the bass, nothing really hurts there. The vocals are a lot more edgy this time around, and aren't more focused on his signature yodels. On Antipop, Claypool is just really loud and edgy vocally. Bryan hasn't really changed much at all, and he's still a very great drummer. The performances showcase this new found edge to their music, and try to show a very in-your-face Primus. No traditional Primus really shows much, and is a very straightfoward metal. The record is just incredibly awkward, and is more focused on throwing metal down on the spot and shoving it all up in your face. So bid farewell to the traditional Primus sound, because Antipop is a riff-fest without the twangy prog to be found.
However, Antipop is not a terrible album. It's miles better than people say it is, even than the band says it is. Antipop has offered up some great tunes and some bitchin' collaborations that are very easy to appreciate. "Electric Uncle Sam" is a short and very fun track, featuring Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine (who shows up on this record a few more times also). "Natural Joe" is mostly average, but "Lacquer Head" is a great example of Primus actually going back to their roots, while mixing some of the heaviness. The title track is dark and funky, and "Eclectic Electric" is also a mixture of dark feelings that make a very cool song. "Greet The Sacred Cow" is one of the highest points to the record, as is "Dirty Drowning Man," (best on the record in my opinion). "Ballad of Bodacious," also resembles a traditional Primus tune, as does "The Final Voyage Of The Liquid Sky,". However, some tracks do fall a bit short. "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool," is an incredibly boring song that goes on way too long, and "Power Mad" is also a snooze fest. Musically, "Cottails of a Dead Man" doesn't impress, but lyrically, it gleams. Antipop is a strong record lyrically, and continues the traditional Primus-style lyrics. There are brief moments of the classic Primus coming back to kick in, but it's short lived when paired to the nu-metal influences dominating the record. The collaborations are very appreciative, with James Hetfield (Metallica), Tom Morello (RATM,Audioslave), Jim Martin (Faith No More), Matt Stone (***in' South Park lmao), Martina Topley-Bird, Stewart Copeland (The Police), and once again Tom Waits. The collaborations are very nicely organized, and definitely help this album out. But that can't entirely save it from it's biggest problem...
..and that problem is it's length. This album just drags on, and I won't lie, I got really bored on my first entire listen-through of it. The album is over an hour long, and it doesn't need to be. The songs tend to drag on and not offer much, which causes the album to seem like it's going on forever. It gives me the itch to just turn it off and put something else on. The good tunes help the album immensely in regards to it's obnoxious runtime, but it just gets monotnous. The album just drags and drags, and the pacing is just dreadful. The runtime didn't need to be this long, looking as this is definitely not Primus's best effort, this riff fest just won't ***ing end. Primus records are usually really enjoyable whatever their lengths, but when Antipop lacks, then the pacing drags. The unnessecary intros and interludes just make the pacing even more dreadful.
The creative move by Primus on Antipop didn't continue past this, and that's a very good thing. The nu-metal theme on this album causes it to suffer musically and performance-wise. Antipop is a riff-fest that is able to offer some good tunes but not enough to truly captivate. Antipop is not a bad record. The abundance of average-to-pretty great songs help this album so much. But Antipop also suffers immensely, with the confusing identity, dreadful pacing , in-your-face nu metal, and downgraded performances. Primus definitely takes shots at this album, and that could because they were all in bad places during the album's production. The conflicting looks on this album eventually lead to their split in 1999. The record abandons key elements of Primus, creating an entirely different record, and in this case that's not such an amazing thing. But when Antipop shines, it does shine, and has offered up some bitchin' tunes and wicked collabs. In the end, Antipop definitely suffers from being a jagged, nu-metal riff-fest, but manages up to offer some bitchin' tunes for Primus to briefly go out on. Primus didn't just slam the door after this one though, and continued on even when there are conflicting views on this record everywhere. However, Antipop stands on it's own division of being an enjoyable record, but nothing amazing in the end.
Favorite Track: Dirty Drowning Man
Least Favorite Track: Power Mad
