[rating=3.50]
Has it really been four years since do it yourself nut-jobs Gene and Dean Ween charmed us with a studio album? Yes, it was 2003’s Quebec, not counting a few B-side releases, when we heard from the band (have to include the other Ween mainstays Claude, Dave and Glenn).
With La Cucaracha, Gene is supposedly in a much safer and saner frame of mind. Well good for him, but the question is how will it effect Ween’s disturbing yet prolific creative side? Will this return to normalcy make Ween go Wilco on us, as they croon “maybe sun will shine today?” Not quite.
From the loony instrumental opener “Fiesta” to the slinky soul of “Blue Balloon,” La Cucaracha shows what Ween do best- meshing genre of music together effortlessly. There is a common theme of “relationships that bind these tracks together, from the almost sincere “Friends,” the lackluster “Object” and the “Piss Up a Rope” type vulgar shocker “My Own Two Hands,” where Dean sings “she’s going to be my cock professor/studying my dick/ she going to get her masters degree in fucking me.” However, he makes it up to the ladies on “Sweetheart in the Summer,” where a playful Motown vibe is randomly cemented.
Along with the dark reggae of “The Fruit Man,” the satirical mysticism in “Spirit Walker” and the cheap tenderness of “Lullaby,” La Cucaracha spreads diversity across its 13 tracks. And then there is the 11 minute conga laden/prog/jam rocker “Woman and Man”, followed by David Sanborn guest sax playing on the chic 80’s closer “Your Party.”
La Cucaracha isn’t your Chocolate and Cheese or Mollusk Ween; it’s inconsistent, but never-the-less, it’s always been about those three or four Ween gems that keep you coming back.
