Primus - "The Desaturating Seven"

Now, I feel like Primus is the sort of band that you either absolutely obsess over or simply don't understand.  But for the most part, I've always been a very casual fan of the legendary Quirky, Funk Metal trio.  The band's first album "Frizzle Fry" however, I really don't have any complaints about overall.  There's plenty of ridiculous playing, oddball lyrics, and most of all personality,  And while some of the band's most cherished tracks like "Groundhog's Day" still sort of escape me, there are plenty of tracks to obsess over.  Obviously "John The Fisherman" and "Too Many Puppies" are big ones.  But tracks like "Spegetti Western" and my favorite Primus tune "Harold of the Rocks" are incredible deep cuts that make this album interesting all the way through.  1991's "Sailing The Seas of Cheese" is an album that I've actually appreciated more and more over the years.  I mean, I've always enjoyed singles like "Tommy The Cat" and "Jerry Was  A Race Car Driver".  But at its core, there's still plenty to love about this album.  For one the production is LOADS better.  But most importantly, I love just how much more aggressive and fierce this album is at the end of the day.  On 1993's "Pork Soda" on the other hand, Primus took a much darker tone.  They had always been a very twisted band obviously.  But the material on "Pork Soda" was much heavier and seriously dark.  But for this album, I sort of just enjoyed it from afar.  I've enjoyed the obvious hits like "My Name is Mud" and "DMV", as well as deep cuts like "Nature Boy".  But overall this album never connected with me as much as their earlier work.  Now, I feel like a lot of people sort of trail off with Primus around 1995's "Tales From The Punchbowl".  But honestly, it's one of my favorites.  I love how much more direct and legitimately heavier material.  But don't worry, Primus were still at their most absurd because the 10 year old in me still thinks "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" is still hilarious. But after that I completely lost touch with Primus I feel like.  1997's "The Brown Album" was easily their most uneventful and tamest album yet.  Singles like "Over The Falls" were fine, and some deep cuts like "Camelback Cinema" were certainly alright.  But the majority of the rest of the album was painfully boring.  Even Les Claypool himself really didn't seem nearly as creative. But I will give Primus this.  I actually really don't mind 1999's "Antipop" at all.  Les to me on this album just sounded so much more interested in what he was making.  The instrumentals were more direct, and overall I thought Primus was making punchy, intense material.  We wouldn't hear from Primus again for 12 years.  In 2011 they made their return with "Green Naugahyde".  Now, I actually think for a comeback this really wasn't terrible.  Tracks like "Jilly's On Smack" and "Lee Van Cleef" brought in that raw insanity that I always loved to hear from Primus.  And instrumentally, Les sounded totally in sync with where he should be.  But still, I sort of felt like Les was stretching with some of these concepts, and tracks like "Eyes of the Squirrel" and "Last Salmon Man" were just awful. Primus returned again in 2014.  And what does a band over 20 years into their career with themselves after doing everything they could with their sound?  Well, cover the Willy Wonka soundtrack in full of course.  That's what Primus did in 2014 with "Primus & The Chocolate Factory".  Now, this album isn't exactly perfect, and it's more than a gimmick than anything.  But come on, it's fun, and Primus end up making the soundtrack even more twisted than it usually is.  So it's been a few years since we've heard from Primus.  But I'll be perfectly honest, these new singles sound about the closest thing to classic Primus imaginable.  So let's talk about this new Primus project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFMJ4-ai1I

(I've always been a sucker for the early Primus singles)

This album starts off with “The Valley”, and it’s certainly a very unsettling intro, between the very uneasy instrumentals and of course the subject matter.  Les Claypool has always had a way of taking things semi-innocent and making them twisted, and here is no different.  I’m fairly certain that’ Les narrating, and it’s just as bizarre as you think it would be.  That, mixed with all of these almost somber instrumentals make for something really powerful actually.  Then, of course, it opens up into some of the usual Primus instrumentals.  I would say however it’s a little toned down as far as that goes.  There’s nothing really that heavy going on here, but they’ve traded that in for genuine tension and some really unsettling atmospheres.  This is a perfectly fine intro, you just really need to take into consideration hat Primus has completely become a gimmick.  But to an extent, I really don’t mind that.  It masks how Les Claypool isn’t as creative as he once was.  Not to mention, this just seems right.  Call me crazy, but I’m totally into “The Valley”, and I’m really having a blast with this.  Then we have “The Seven”, with it’s tight playing and thumping bass sounding a whole lot more like the Primus we all know.  Instrumentally, this one is much wilder.  Come to think of it, this entire track is so much wilder and off the rails sounding.  Les sounds like his usual bizarre, nasally self.  And call me crazy, and I’ve never read the book (and don’t want to after this performance of it), but Les and Primus are really doing a great job of illustrating it.  I don’t know if they wrote these lyrics or if they’re excerpts from the book, but it works really well either way.  And while no, they haven’t reinvented themselves here in any way, I would certainly rather listen to this than hear Les Claypool half-ass his way through the new material.  Primus continue to make a whole lot of mystery with “The Trek”.  But what’s really interesting is just how great of Storytellers they’re coming off as.  In a way, I feel like them narrating this story make it even more effective.  I love just how dark and eerie these instrumentals are coming off.  I honestly feel like Primus recorded this in the deepest and darkest corner of some cave.  Then, of course, we have Les’s usually very erratic singing over all of this that kicks it up so much.  “The Trek” is bizarre, but as this one get’s funkier and funkier, it almost reminds me of something from the “Pork Soda” era.  It’s twisted and dark, but it’s presented in a  really amazing way. Now, even though this track is almost 8 minutes long, it comes off really entertaining the entire way through.  Plus, I can’t remember if Primus was ever this easy to read into.  Which yes, may piss a lot of people off, but I don’t mind it at all. Then we have “The Scheme”, which right from the intro sounds funky and groovy enough to be a classic Primus tune.  I love the intensity of this one.  Even though it’s not terribly hard-hitting, this is easily some of the heavier riffs we’ve heard from guitarist Larry LaLonde and Les.  It’s hard to put your finger on and it’s practically constantly moving.  But hell yes “The Scheme” works for Primus.  It’s just about the shorted track here, but Primus continue to illustrate this twisted and colorful world wonderfully.  Obviously, if you’re not into Primus, to begin with this probably still won’t do much for you.  But still, I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with a Primus album. 

    Now sadly, “The Dream” doesn’t hit me as hard.  It takes a little too long to get going for my liking.  Now, I totally get that it’s supposed to be a dream sequence, but that doesn’t mean it has to be this boring.  This is the safest that I’ve heard Primus at this whole album.  And while some of the light pluckings is actually sort of cool, I’m not 100% into this at all.  I just really don’t feel like the Psychedelic base that this one has does anyone any favors.  There’s no intense playing here, just a lot of strange instrumentals and Les moaning over them.  And while yes, this does advance the plot, I can’t say it’s anything too interesting at all.   Then we have the fact that this track is almost 7 minutes long.  Why?  Where’s the content?  I was shocked to see this album was only about 35 minutes long, which is totally fine.  But if you’re going to bring an album this short to the table, you better make sure it’s packed with content.  “The Dream” is not that, sadly.  Now, you can argue that a whole lot of nothing is going on at the intro to “The Storm” either.  But this much darker, more twisted atmosphere is all I really need to hear.  This one has plenty of tension to go around, between these cymbal taps and bass riffs that’s are seriously hard to place.  This may be the most sinister sounding track of the album, and you what’s coming from reading the book, then you know why.  I’m not going to spoil it though for if you haven’t read it or listened to this, but let me say this already dark affair is about to get darker.  I have to continue to give Primus a ton of credit because they really have done an excellent job with illustrating this truly twisted Children’s book.  But as this one gets going, the instrumentals slowly start to get heavier and heavier, and Les’s performances get to be damn near evil.  “The Storm” is a great tune, and works as a really great climax to this story Primus is telling.  And of course it just ends in a twisted disturbing image, but could we expect anything else?  This album ends with “The Ends?”, which certainly continues to have a cool and twisted feeling in the atmosphere.  But like, I feel like Primus could have done so much more with this ending and they don’t.  We get a sort of final voiceover that attempts to wrap it up, but it really sort of fails.  It’s just sort of a half-assed finale. 

Rating 7.5/10

Give A Listen To: “The Seven”, “The Trek”, “The Scheme”, “The Storm”

Genre: Experimental Rock / Progressive Rock / Funk Rock

If You Dig This, Check Out: Primus - “Frizzle Fry”, Faith No More - “Angel Dust”, Uhhhhh, anything else by Primus?

Overall Thoughts:  Being the first Primus album in years to feature the original lineup, I was excited to hear this album. Now, you can argue that Primus aren’t doing anything to reinvent themselves or anything too out of their comfort zone.  But call me nuts, I would rather hear Primus illustrate a Disturbing Children’s novel than hear them go for an attempt at recapturing their glory days.  This album isn’t perfect, but it sure as hell is the funnest thing Primus has done in YEARS.