Reviews by fing2112

What did I expect from The Vaccines? Inoffensive and mildly boring post-punk revival and garage rock, which is more or less what I got, though it is a lot poppier than I expected. The Vaccines are good at hooks, to their credit, but I don't really find any other aspect of the album interesting. I started the user list specifically to avoid albums like this.

Should it have been on the main list: No. This is Dimery-core so I'm a little surprised it wasn't on, but we don't need more of this kind of music.

Top 3 songs: Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra), If You Wanna, Post Break-Up Sex

I was relistening to the Vulfpeck live album when I generated this, which is a funny coincidence because both albums are similar in that both Vulfpeck and Snarky Puppy are talented bands that play technical music. The differences make and break the albums however, Vulfpeck's studio work feels very sterile but they put a lot of fun into their live shows, Snarky Puppy do not and instead their live shows are all technique.

I remember Snarky Puppy being a band that were popular with college kids when I was there, and based on my interactions in the generator discord, it seems like everyone has a certain friend or acquaintance that insisted that they must check out this band. Fortunately Snarky Puppy fans seem to be smart enough to keep their mouth shut so they haven't gained the same reputation as Tool, Phish, or Grateful Dead.

That is to say I have checked Snarky Puppy out and I wasn't particularly impressed, however this album caught my attention immediately. The start of the album is phenomenal the first song is typical jazz fusion with a rocky undertone, before the second song flourishes into a rocking prog track. I don't know if the rockiness of the album is an intentional choice or a result of the band becoming more rock in a live setting (a pretty common phenomenon) but the energy from these first two tracks really give you something to hook onto compared to their more typical jazz affair.

Unfortunately from the third track onwards the band loses a lot of juice for me, and by the time of the penultimate song I was ready for it to be over. Fortunately the album is only 55 minutes long so it doesn't feel like it drags at all, were it any longer I probably would have started disliking it. Sorry but I just don't like jam bands or any bands that focus entirely on improv. The last song fortunately ends on a bang though.

Should it be in the main list: God no please no more jam bands

Top 3 songs: Shofukan, What About Me?, Lingus

Wow this is terrible! I have to ask, submitter what were you thinking? That said this is a very high 2, as bad as this album is I actually find it quite fun!

This album is funk rock, but also has elements of funk metal, rap rock, and alt rock. A lot of other reviewers are comparing them to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I don't hear that at all, they sound far more in line with Living Colour and Fishbone to me, especially the former. They also cite George Clinton of Parliament and Funkadelic fame, which I can also hear. There is a song where the singer starts spouting Kiedis style gibberish, and it's pretty embarrassing. Also there's one song where he pretends to be Grandmaster Flash? I have no idea what Gotcha! are trying to do in this album.

This band is Dutch but you wouldn't think so based on the content of the album. They really like to pretend they're from Southern California for some reason and it's (again) embarrassing. They have a pretty talented ensemble, but surprisingly they sound very amateurish on most songs, with Naked being the only real example of them sounding good.

The last few tracks is probably where I have to knock it down a star, after mostly bad but fun funk rock towards the end they play they start to play more standard rock and with it a lot of their fun factor leaves. Oh well. Love the album art though.

Should it be on the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Naked, Bonesong, Red Hot Momma

Bluegrass!? That explains the title...

This is a very fun cover album from Mrs. Parton. I always see her as a musically slow and vulnerable artist, mainly due to her 70s output, but The Grass is Blue is anything but! This album is very energetic, upbeat, bouncy, and just all around fun. There's not a whole lot of Dolly's typical country pop style, instead she goes all in on the bluegrass theme and does a damn good job of it. It also helps the vibe of the album that it seems like she's having fun.

The last song, I Am Ready, is a complete change from the rest of the album, it's a beautiful a capella and gospel song about accepting death, meeting god, and reassuring those around her once she's gone. I had this album generated the day after her death as a tribute, so this song hits especially hard right now. RIP Dolly, hopefully you had the same attitude towards death as you did 27 years ago.

Should it be on the main list: No, add Jolene instead

Top 3 songs: Travelling Prayer, Silver Dagger, I Am Ready

King Gizzard make a attempt at a prog album, and the end result is pretty damn good. The album has great flow to a point where it's hard to tell where one song ends and another begins, despite having clearly defined ends. Despite most prog being mired in wankery and overt seriousness, KG also manage to make it really fun. There's a strong spacey vibe to the album that gives the songs a bit more room to breathe and helps make it a more relaxing listen despite the polyrhythms and technicality on display. Good stuff!

Should it be on the list: KG&tLW definitely need one album, personally I'd opt for Nonagon Infinity, but I don't have anything against Polygondwanaland being included.

Top 3 songs: Crumbling Castle, Loyalty, The Fourth Colour

With a name like Transatlanticism and the concept about long distance relationships, I expected this to be an album that would really connect with me (this is the warning to the reader that this review will contain personal experiences), but unfortunately I found it fell flat in that regard, that said it's quite successful as a breakup album.

This album feels a lot like the American equivalent of the post-britpop scene in the UK (e.g. early Coldplay, Travis, Keane, Doves) but the US equivalent of it, but approached from an emo background. It's a pretty interesting sound. Death Cab also seem quite fond of post-rock type slow build ups leading to crescendos, most notably on the title track.

You can tell that this album took a lot of inspiration from Elliott Smith, in terms of lyrics, vocals, and music, though Transatlanticism is much rockier. It does run the risk of appearing a little like Elliott Smith but on a budget, but lyricism on the album is quite flowery so it's still pretty good.

I found the LDR concept of the album difficult to connect to. For context I am a Brit that moved to the US about two and a half years ago to be with my (now) wife who is American and who I was apart from for about 4 years. A lot of the lyricism in this is about how difficult being apart is and how it highlights the fractures within the relationship and the insecurities of the people involved, which is good, the problem is that many of the lyrics just come across as the singer either not liking his partner or only being in love with them for superficial reasons.

I actually spoke with my wife about the difficulties of our LDR phase today for reasons unrelated to today's pick, and she said that a lot of people she talked to in LDRs had similar problems as the lyrics in this album, so it probably will connect to a lot of people in this position but I just don't understand it. Of course it's easier to do an LDR in the year 2020 than in 2003, but I think the core issue remains.

As stated at the start, it's actually pretty good as a breakup album, which I'm assuming is the way most people engage with it, and it's when I started to think of it in this way that I started to enjoy it. Also really appreciated that anti-new years day song at the start, very interesting concept for a song.

Should it be on the list: Probably not but you could make a case for it

Top 3 songs: The New Year, Title and Registration, Tiny Vessels

Oh boy more Tool, and the one that's widely regarded as the worst by non Tool fanboys. I'm an open minded person, let's give it a shot.

This album opens extremely strongly, the first couple minutes of the title track might actually be one of my favourite moments of their whole discography, let alone this album. It's a very slow and methodical build up, first with some ambient-esque soundscapes, then middle eastern inspired beats, and then finally Adam Jones's famous guitar sound. It drops off when Maynard Keenan starts singing and only gets worse from there, for some reason I really don't like JMK's voice on this album and I thought it was autotune at first. Oh well, promising enough I guess even if it faded.

Unfortunately the whole album is downhill from this point, there's a few moments where they opt for some more soundscapes. One song is a dark ambient interlude and it was by far my favourite thing on the album, I wished they leaned into this aspect more on the album because the traditional Tool music is very toothless on the album.

There is unusually a peak towards the end of the album, first with Chocolate Chip Trip which is bizarre electronic/drum solo track but I actually quite dig it. 7empest (seven empest?) is the most traditional song here, and it's the only example of Tool retreading old ground and doing it well.

Should it be on the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Fear Inoculum, Legion Inoculant, Chocolate Chip Trip

The best hard rock album of the 21st century, if not the best hard rock album ever? For all the hard rock dreck I drudged through in the main list, there's no way that Songs for the Deaf should have slipped through the cracks, but fortunately the user list comes to the rescue.

I have history with Songs for the Deaf, it was one of the first albums I fell in love with during my early teens and an album that helped shape my music taste. I haven't listened to it in a long time so I'm trying to approach this from an unbiased perspective, but fortunately this album still rocks.

I made it sound like this was just a hard rock album, but that's doing this album great disservice as there are a lot of factors that make it click. SftD is a variety of hard rock known as "stoner rock", which takes influence from psychedelic rock and heavy metal but doesn't go far enough in either direction, opting to stay within the more accessible realm of hard rock. This album is also alternative rock, which is important for reasons I'll get into later.

The hard rock elements give these songs a much needed oomph, but it's not the only thing in the album that achieves this. This album is notorious for its "loudness" (in short a mastering technique which reduces dynamic range making the quiet moments less quiet,) and while it's generally considered a negative thing I think this album is one of the rare cases where it works in the albums favour. This album blasts you with sound and almost every song does this at some point to give the songs a punch, and that's an accurate descriptor as sometimes the sound bursts are so powerful it feels like a physical hit. The first song "[...] Millionaire" uses this effect multiple times and it really sends a message as to what to expect from the album.

The Queens of the Stone Age album in the book is far heavier on the stoner rock side and it hurts the accessibility of it, there are a few songs that go into alt rock territory and I think they're the best on that album and a prototype for their next two albums, Rated R, and Songs for the Deaf. If Only is easily the poppiest of the bunch although seems very primitive compared to anything from this album, but the seed was planted back then. The alternative rock stylings on this album give it a much needed boost for hooks to counterbalance to the hardness.

For this album Mark Lanegan (from the Screaming Trees) and David Grohl were recruited, and the inclusion of these two grunge legends had great impact. Grunge was a great example of mixing heavy and aggressive sounds with pop music (and underneath rocky exterior this is a pop album) so I think they were added to give the album that sweeter appeal. I think Lanegan might actually be the secret sauce as to why the songs sound so good, as the band lost much of the pop appeal after his departure.

The final thing that makes this so special are the radio broadcast parody snippets. SftD is a concept album, supposedly of a road trip from LA, through the Californian deser,t to Joshua Tree. In-between songs there's radio skits and radio dial turning to give it the immersive feel of flicking through radio stations while on a road trip, also with some satire on radio culture. The album already has a very desert type feeling to it so these two factors combined put you in that frame of mind for most of the album's runtime.

The album ends on a folky, chamber pop song called Mosquito Song. It's far from the best song on here (or maybe not, I find it very difficult to pick favorites on this album), but flipping the entire album on its head is an interesting way to close it out. There's no electric guitars and it's a very delicate and soft song, with a vaguely Latin theme, so completely different from anything else. Interestingly Mosquito Song still manages to pack a punch with the orchestral swells. One of the members of Ween also get a writing credit here

Should it be on the main list: Yes, 100%. How did the debut make it in over this?

Top 3 songs: No One Knows, Another Love Song, Song for the Deaf

Wow a score of 1.95? Do you people have no concept of fun? Don't forget that we can see what your submissions for the user list too!

Okay, now that I've stepped down from my high horse, I do agree with the sentiment that the Mewgenics soundtrack isn't a suitable album for any list like this, for a few reasons, though the primary one is just that soundtracks have more to prove to justify their inclusion, which was a complaint I had with Dimery's list. The only two other game soundtracks I see are Katamari Damacy, and Silent Hill 2, both of which merit their inclusion, unfortunately Mewgenics does not meet that criteria. However that isn't to say that there's no musical value in this album, quite the opposite in fact.

Mewgenics, from what I can tell online, is an indie turn-based based post-apocolyptic game about cat breeding. A very strange concept for a game, but unimportant to the quality of the album, which is actually pretty damn impressive.

Mewgenics has a pretty long runtime of an hour 38 minutes, most of which is either vocal jazz or jazz pop and is about either cat related topics or about death/spooky topics (dead cats, zombies, skeletons) complete with haunted house-esque music for those songs. In terms of genre it floats around a bit, there's a fair amount of country, rock, and rockabilly but it seems to be trying to stay consistent within a American 50s to early-mid 60s theme so any genre you can think of that was big around that time probably plays some role in this album. A large amount of the jazz songs also have kind of a spy movie theme to them, which is interesting I guess.

As alluded to earlier, I actually think these songs are extremely well done for the most part, this album clearly isn't a joke suggestion. Lyrically they take a more humorous tone, it's not an album to take with much seriousness, but I think the good musicianship, with the genre hopping and the comedic tone of the lyrics contributes to a fun experience. I've listened to this album twice now, and despite being over an hour and a half long, neither time have I felt the album dragging.

This does lead me onto the biggest negative, and unfortunately it's killer: The album doesnt feel like a standalone experience. Having not played the game it feels like I'm missing important context to a lot of this album, and it feels like something for fans of the game (which makes total sense, it's an accompaniment piece to the main course) rather than casual listeners like I, which immediately makes it ineligible for any list in my opinion. To its credit some songs do try to mitigate this. There's a series a songs about a big bad character (e.g. Crystalline Dreams being a spider, Throbbing King being about some kind of despot) which I'm going to assume are boss characters, and the lyrics give some background into these characters and as a result the lack of context isn't as bad as it could be, but it's still disqualifying. Also it came out this year. Props to having the most recent album on the board, but it's far too early to suggest anything that's been out for under 8 months is worthy of being here

The last song is a parody of the Monster Mash for some reason. Also one of the songs was a jazzy rendition of the danse macabre with lyrics about zombies, which I found to be delightfully amusing.

Should it be on the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Them Kitty Bones, Down With the Devil, Feline Invader

Geography is an interesting blend of modern takes on black US genres, primarily neo-soul, R&B, jazz funk, and acid jazz, but there's also elements of disco and rap from time to time. Exactly my kind of thing, so let's get into it.

This album is extremely clean, think of Steely Dan's Aja era. the production sounds immaculate and sterile, which I know is off putting for a lot of people (see the terrible score for the brilliant Cupid and Psyche 85) but I actually like clean production a lot as long as it's backed by good musicianship, which Geography most certainly is. Misch's vocals also sound great here clear and distinct from the rest of the band, plus he has a great voice.

Tom Misch has to be a music major, this variety of music perfection is popular amongst people with higher education in music, even down to the genres on display (soul, funk, R&B and jazz). I think the length is perfect, it's enjoyable for 52 minutes but ends right as it starts getting old.

Theres also a few easter eggs for 1001 main list listeners. There's a feature from De La Soul, a sample from The Crusader's Street Life album, and a cover of Isn't She Lovely. The cover is fine, but I don't think it's suited to this format, the original song is very lively and soulful (it's Songs in the Key of LIFE) so covering it in this sterile environment does suck the joy out of it. Fortunately it's mainly used as a short interlude so it doesn't detract from the album.

Geography is great at what it does, but I don't find it particularly unique or interesting. That said, I will definitely return to it as I enjoyed it considerably.

Should it be on the list: No

Top 3 songs: South of the River, It Runs Through Me, Disco Yes

For an album named Body Talk I expected this to be more aggressively dancey, but this ends up being quite limp in the boogie department.

The only song I knew prior to listening to this today is Dancing On My Own, a big hit and deservedly so, it's a fun dance bop while having pretty thoughtful and intelligent lyrics. It contrasts heartbreak with a pumping synthwave/Hi-NRG beat. Robyn may be heartbroken, but she /is/ at a club. With a title like "Body Talk" this is exactly what I thought the rest of the album would be like.

Unfortunately the rest of this album is pretty bland. I feel like the songs that explore the hi-NRG and synthwave genres are the better songs on here, but unfortunately there's not too many of them and for the most part the album is pretty standard electropop/dance pop, of which there's already plenty of that on this user list. My top 3 (at the bottom of this review) are the only songs that really popped for me, and everything else felt pretty flat, which isn't good for a dance pop album.

I do see ways in which it has an influence on the electropop scene in the 10s, but I just don't find it interesting enough, especially since it's an hour long. You could replace this with just about any other electropop record around the same time and it would be the same.

Should it be on the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Dancing On My Own, Indestructible, Hang With Me

The band that blurred the lines between prog rock and metal and seem to have consistent fan support with both the plebeians and the patricians. I don't love Tool, nor do I despise them (just their fans), so other reviewers will better explain why Lateralus is the best/worst album ever.

I think the biggest quality this album has is the trance-like state it creates from the get go. This album is 76 minutes long but it doesn't feel like that. Tool - with their LSD and DMT inspired prog - manage to create a free flowing album which you don't question, you just experience. I know some people (myself included) criticise Tool for sounding too samey, but this is a great example of why it can be a good thing. This is the biggest strength Lateralus has and sets it apart from their other works.

The first half of the album features many interludes, I guess to reduce the intensity and keep that trance like state going. These often also serve as a means to set up the next song, for example Parabol being the slow and quiet intro to Parabola. The second half has more tracks that feel a little like filler but I think they fulfill the same role as the interludes at managing the album flow.

Should it be on the main list: Yes, but with a caveat, I would pick one of either this or Aenima. I'd go for the latter, but Lateralus is probably more deserving. Two albums maybe, but we definitely don't need four of them.

Top 3 songs: The Grudge, Schism, Parabola

This album is such a blast! I agree with the guy that says it's like a joke with no context, it definitely feels like it was made for fans of the band first and foremost, complete with their in jokes (of which you will never learn the context), but it also sets the tone of them being jokers, which they very much are. They're clearly a silly band that don't take themselves too seriously.

Despite how comical Vulfpeck are, they're very serious when it comes to their instruments. This album is funk, jazz funk, and soul, with the funk and jazz funk occupying the first and last third, and the middle being almost entirely soul. This music is very technical but they perform brilliantly while managing to get the crowd engaged. The show has a lot of energy, so on that front it's a successful live album.

They do seem a little up their own ass at times, in that Jacob Collier kind of way which is a little annoying, but solid album otherwise.

Should it be in the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Cory Wong, Tesla, It Gets Funkier

I'm sorry to whoever submitted this if it was a serious pick, because I can't tell if this is a troll pick or not. Musically it's actually pretty interesting, it's not entirely inaccessible rock but manages to explore sounds that would fit it firmly in the experimental rock genre. It's also very short, clocking in at a little over 30 mins. This is unfortunately where the positives end...

My biggest hangup with The Golden River is the singer, he is TREMENDOUSLY annoying. One of his features that appears in every song at least once (I think) is a howling noise that sounds horrid. His regular singing voice isn't much better. There's one song (which is in the top 3 below) that sounds like he's doing a Tom Waits impression over Runescape music.

I might appreciate it more with more listens, since it is relatively experimental, but this was an unpleasant first attempt

Should it be in the main list: No

Top 3 Songs: One in Six Children Will Flee In Boats, Time Destroys It's Plan at the Reactionary Table, Soldiers Crash Gathering At Sparrow Halls

Terrible band name, terrible album cover, I don't know what Alopecia is but it's probably a terrible album name. That said the album is quite good. This site calls this hip hop (and experimental for some reason) but I disagree. It has elements of hip-hop sure , but it's far more akin to "geek rock" bands like Cake, Tally Hall, and Harvey Danger.

Many reviews on this site compare Why to They Might Be Giants, and while it does seem like a lazy comparison it's also very true. They have a sense of humor not unlike TMBG, and musically are in the same ballpark of indie pop. They have a few rap songs scattered within the album but it all flows together pretty well, they mostly talk sing on their poppier songs anyway. They sound very similar to Oliver Tree, which makes me wonder if they were an influence for him.

Lyrically Alopecia is quite dark, with death being a common theme. They retain that sense of humour throughout all of this, but it does set Why apart from the aforementioned bands. I'm glad they don't this as serious as the lyrics should probably suggest because I think it would have hurt the album.

Some of the reviews on this page are terrible, so I just want to shout out the guy who submitted Alopecia. It's a bizarre album but also not like anything I've really heard before (even though I spent half the review comparing them to other bands), but I'm glad I listened to it and submissions like this make the user list more interesting.

Should it be on the main list: Probably, it's a pretty unique album

Top 3 songs: The Vowels Part 2, These Few Presidents, Fatalist Palmistry

My first live album from the user list! The original of this album is about an hour and 10 minutes, I'm listening to the 2005 reissue which is 2 hours and 16 minutes long, because this is presumably the one that the submitter wants me to listen to. With the main list I was always cautious of live albums, too many were stand-ins for compilations and many of them just weren't that good. Will the user list fare better? I imagine so. Anyway let's get into it.

So this album is almost entirely covers. Does it matter? Honestly probably not, you're listening to Joe Cocker for his vocals, energy, and stage presence which is expectedly very good on this album. I do think his renditions of the songs are overwrought and dramatic in a lot of cases (e.g. With a Little Help From My Friends), but again he's playing to his strengths which I respect.

With some songs I actually prefer the original, The Weight is a great example of this, I think the original vulnerable vocals were a better fit for the song despite Cocker having the objectively stronger vocals. Sometimes less is more, not that I don't love Cocker's version.

The big downside is the length, and I do think it starts to drag in the second half. Also I feel like the energy starts to fizzle out in the second half which for a frontman like Cocker is never a good thing. There's a lot I like, and a lot I dislike, and I probably won't willingly return to this

Also, Joe Cocker is English? It's so weird for him to sing in his powerful soul and blues inspired voice to talk like a Yorkshire commoner.

Should it be on the main list: No, but it's better than most of the live albums there.

Top 3 songs: She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, Something, Let It Be (what can I say, I like The Beatles)

I don't really have a whole lot to say about all these folk/folk rock albums except that they're boring and I wish people would have a higher standard for them. This one is a little better because of the chamber pop parts that permeate through the album, when he focuses on more string oriented textures the album sounds fine.

The songwriting on here isnt too bad, I could see it hitting a bit harder if I was in the right mood. Unfortunately his voice varies between being meh and being completely insufferable.

Should it be in the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Delicate, Older Chests, Amie

I was cautiously optimistic for this one, I liked Vivid (the Living Colour album from the main list), it had nice hooks and grooves, and I thought the guitarist put in an insane performance. That said, did Living Colour really need two albums?

Tine's Up - both the album and the title track which is the first song - starts by picking up exactly where Vivid left off, groovy funk metal, this time with a little environmental message. At this point I thought the album was just going to tread old ground, but next two songs History Lesson and Pride showcases exactly what separates this album from Vivid, which is that this album is significantly more political and conscious of black civil rights, and very unashamedly so.

The further you get into the album, the more it strays from Living Colour's established funk metal formula and shows that this album is more experimental than what they were doing on the previous release. The last few songs go completely off the rails with a jazz song, a beatbox/rap song, a traditional African/Caribbean song, and then the final song which sound exactly like Tool, to a point where I wonder if they based their entire sound off of it.

Another difference with this album is that the album clocks in at just under an hour, which is significantly longer than their debut. With the length and the mash of genres it does start to feel like a bit of a sprawling mess, but I think from the perspective of the band this was a feature rather than a bug.

Unfortunately as the score reflects, I don't like Time's Up as much as Vivid. With the consciousness and more adventurous music the band has sacrificed a lot of the hooks that made Vivid such a fun romp. Also my excitement at hearing more from the guitarist doesn't seem to have been reciprocated by the band, he sounds far more restrained compared to the freedom he had on the debut. He still has his moments but I think he's the band's secret sauce and should be front and centre.

I find this album to be a lot more interesting than Vivid was, and I'm glad I listened to it, but I find that album to be a much more enjoyable listening experience. I can see why someone would prefer Time's Up, but it's not for me.

Should it be on the main list: No, but I think you could make a case for it.

Top 3 songs: Pride, Type, This is the Life

This album is in an unfortunate circumstance of being a blend of a bunch of genres that I don't like. I don't hate it by any means, but it's not something I would willingly listen to.

Ungodly Hour is primarily mainstream R&B, but has sneaking elements of trap and alt R&B throughout. Both Chloe and Halle are good singers and thankfully they don't abuse auto tune like a lot of artists in the alt R&B space. As stated earlier, it's not bad it's just not to my tastes, though I can't pick out why this is special over any other R&B release.

Should it be on the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Forgive Me, Do It, Ungodly Hour

A wonderfully nautical themed album, The Mollusk is "neo-psychedelia" in the truest sense of the term, crafting psychedelic soundscapes using synths, country instrumentals, and vocal processing, instead of traditional 60s/70s methods.

I have a bias towards aquatic sounding albums so this album definitely tickles me. Up to this point Ween had been a very weird and sometimes experimental band (except for the country album) but The Mollusk is an insanely accessible album despite its quirks, Ween manage to blend a variety of different genres (folk, prog, country, even sea shanties) into a very palatable package. Since this genre hops so much it never gets too boring or samey, and surprisingly Ween have made a surprisingly cohesive album despite the assortment of genres on display.

The Mollusk has a sort of childish quality, not necessarily immature (though it is pretty immature) but more in a childlike wonder kind of way. The title track and Ocean Man are the best examples of this. I think this aspect of the album is the secret sauce that ties everything together, I think childishness isn't utilised very well in art and Ween are one of the few acts weird enough to pull it off. Even the more adult songs (such as the ones about drugs and The Blarney Stone which is excessively vulgar) still retain this childlike quality. This album was apparently a big inspiration for the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants, which checks out.

Another major theme of the album is traditional music, specifically in an old-fashioned sense, such as sea shanties and traditional folk songs. The helps add to the sailor-esque theme that runs through the album. Cold Blows the Wind, one of the finest songs on The Mollusk is even a cover of a traditional Irish folk song.

I think this is easily Ween's finest record and combines all of their positive qualities with none of their worst impulses like some of their other albums do.

Should it be on the main list: Yes, Ween should have a minimum of 1 album and could very well have 3.

Top songs: Mutilated Lips, Ocean Man, She Wanted to Leave