THE DESATURATING SEVEN

In 2017, Primus released its ninth studio album, which saw the classic, and most famous, of their line-ups return once again; Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde and Tim Alexander. "The Desaturating Seven" is that album and it is the 2nd in a row based upon a children's story, the previous one being "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which saw the band doing their take on the songs from the original movie "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". This time, the book that the album has taken inspiration from is "The Rainbow Goblin" by Italian author Ul de Rico. Also, this time, all of the songs on the album are original, written by Claypool.

Claypool felt that the story would make for an interesting concept album. It is a book that he used to read to his children when they were younger. The story is about 7 goblins that suck the colors out of rainbows in a greedy manner. The album features 7 tracks and is also the shortest of all of the Primus albums at only just under 35 minutes. It is also considered the most progressive of all of Primus' albums. The first track "The Valley" features the spoken word vocals of guest Justin Chancellor, who plays the part of the goblin master on the first track. After the narration, the music plunks along ominously, and Claypools treated vocals keep the music eerie, yet whimsical. This track is a bit more minimal than most of their music.

"The Seven" has more of the signature sound of Primus, especially that of Claypools vocals, stylistic bass playing, LeLonde's chunky and entertaining guitars and Alexander's drums that match the sound so perfectly. However, just like all of Primus' albums, this one requires more than just the attitude of "sitting back and listening" as the music is much more immersive than that, with the weird narration and lyrics, delivered with that same smirk of sarcasm as always. The real center of attention is the track that introduces the seven gnomes, "The Trek". The real barn burner here, however, is the mostly instrumental track "The Storm" that features the boiling bass and the percussive plucking of the guitar which later develops into an exciting progressive tour-de-force.

Where most of this album isn't quite as funky-metal as their other albums, it still has enough here to make the fans happy. This one is more carefree, but also more narrative, where the lyrics and the story are more important, and the music is adjusted to a more progressive feel to match the narrative frame of the lyrics. So you will notice more meter and tempo changes in this album than you might have noticed before. But there is still no doubt that this is Primus, they are not trying to be someone else here, but at the same time, they are not trying to copy past albums like "Seas of Cheese" or "Tales from the Punchbowl". If anything, the music approaches "Discipline" era King Crimson more than The Residents like some of their older albums, but again, with Primus' unique spin on everything.

The album is pretty much everything a Primus fan could want, including myself. Silly, sarcastic, musically interesting and complex, and requiring the unique talent of these great musicians. The biggest complaint I have is that it is so short and over so quickly. It leaves you with that disappointment, that it just needed to have something more to it. If this album was paired as a double with "Primus and the Chocolate Factory", then it would have been a perfect 5 star album. Unfortunately, as it is, it only gets a 4 star rating, but that doesn't mean that it should be ignored. It's still the Primus that you have grown to know and despise, but in a loving way.