PORK SODA

Three studio albums into their career, Primus still sound very much like Primus. However, this album is significantly darker than Frizzle Fry and Sailing The Seas Of Cheese from a lyrical standpoint. Songs deal with tales involving a friend's suicide "Bob" and murder "My Name Is Mud". Claypool still manage to squeeze some humorous lyrics into songs like "Pork Soda" and "The Air Is Getting Slippery".

The music on Pork Soda is also heavier than previous albums, but one may argue the inclusion of banjo and mandolin on the album negates this fact. The bass tone on "My Name Is Mud" may be one of the heaviest sounds of any Primus album to date. "Mr. Krinkle" features a great combination of Claypool's bowed upright bass and Lalonde's guitar noises to make a gloomy but memorable song (with an interesting music video). The band also includes the song "The Pressman", which previously showed up on the live Suck On This album.

This album also contains three instrumental tracks (not including the brief "Pork Chop's Little Ditty"). The first, "Wounded Knee", is a well-structured, beautifully melodic percussive piece by drummer Tim Alexander. The second, dubbed "Hamburger Train", is more of a jam track than a song. Very much a rhythm section-led piece, Ler decorates it with some spacey, sometimes Crimson-like guitar noises. Great playing, but "Hamburger Train" goes on a bit too long for me. The last instrumental piece, "Hail Santa", features an odd combination of Les's bass, a bicycle bell, and a talking children's toy. Not much point to this track, but they had to end the album somehow, I suppose.

There is plenty of material on Pork Soda to please Primus fans and progressive music lovers, but this album lacks the consistency of other Primus albums. Pork Soda gets three stars.