WEEN: THE MOLLUSK

SCORE: 79/100

'The Mollusk' manages to be even wackier than 'Chocolate and Cheese', with elements of sea shanties and psychedelia coming to the forefront of the album; the album that feels more like a loose blend of tracks than a structured project still manages to work, and it manages to show off the bands' style to a wonderful level.

The album starts off weak with 'I'm Dancing In the Show Tonight', which is probably one of the bands' weakest tracks in my opinion. The experimental nature of the album leads to some things that don't work as well as they realistically could, but the overall sound of the album is an interesting one. The high moments are they - and when they do arise, they are exceptional highs.

It contains some of their strongest material, but it also contains a fair amount of songs that I would not return to. Some sounds come across much better than others, but the sporadic nature of the album helps to keep it incredibly interesting - and interesting it is. 

Once the album picks up more it gets more enjoyable, and it uses the first few tracks to sort of warm up and prepare for the mid-late portions of the album - which are the strongest of the bunch. It's absolutely a "weird" album, but it's strange in all of the most endearing ways - and it's safe to say that only Ween could make an album like this one.

The fact this was released in the 90s is surprising. It doesn't sound like it belongs in any decade - and it uses genre structures from past decades to make something wonderfully unique and interesting to listen to. The oceanic, pirate-esque sound of this album is one you won't get anywhere else, and each of the songs provide something new and deeply interesting.

Some of the tracks here are almost Beatles-esque in nature, and the more laid back, mellow tracks provide very nice breaths of fresh air amongst the chaos of 'The Mollusk'. The album does everything that a Ween album realistically should do, and it manages to be a project that feels like it belongs strictly to the band; it isn't something another band could try to do, and it isn't something we'll get anything like again.

It's a very two-sided album, with slower and more chaotic tracks blending into a very nice project that comes together better than one might expect it to. It wasn't as consistent in enjoyability than I might've expected it to be - but it still comes into one very good project for the band.


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