SAILING THE SEAS OF CHEESE

Seas of Cheese is a nice intro, just a little tune with oceanic and boat noises.

Here Come The Bastards is a very heavy track, the riff sounds angry. The riff is really simple and sounds like a modern Black Sabbath riff. The vocals are pretty good on this one, Les does a great job. It ends quite sharply.

Sgt. Baker has a weird intro but then kicks into a really quirky bassline and riff. It amazes me how Primus can just come up with riffs like this. Les does some very powerful vocals on this, some strong yelling. This isn't a song you can tap your foot to though as the tempo is jumping all over the place throughout the whole song. The song doesn't have much to it besides that.

American Life starts out just....INSANE. Insane. This is an intro you will want to listen to over and over because it is definitely one of the most incredible things I have heard done on a bass guitar! Seriously, this rivals the likes of DMV by Primus of course. And Les just does it so flawlessly. I'm not even paying attention to the rest of the song, just listening to that bass. Jeebus cripes! How can one man do this? Maybe he did it once and it's just replayed over and over. I have no clue, but this guy has MASSIVE technical skill. The song really kicks you in the ass around 3 minutes in, it begins to really rock, features a pretty good guitar solo, I think it's Larry LaLonde doing this but Todd Huth did some better work on Frizzle Fry as far as solos go.

Then there's Jerry Was A Race Car Driver which is one of Primus' most well known works. I can't help but think that DMV was a spin-off of this song. It really sounds similar. The basswork (however not as good as on DMV), the verses, the instrumental sections. It really develops into a monster jam for a while in the middle. There is some better guitar work than on any of the songs so far, some pretty good technical noodling. I'm a bit confused as to how this became such a big hit because it doesn't stand out that much for me.

Eleven is madness. It features some really bippy-boppy drums but then this sonic growl of a bass comes thundering in and then the song just collapses into this monster groove. Very heavy. Primus really do get metal at some moments. The riff is definitely not memorable but the fact that it's played very heavy is. There is also a short guitar solo here which is nice but is cut short. Les should have allowed some more guitar solos! This song features some unusual timing and tempos, and like every other song on the album, ends sharply.

JESUS!!! ANOTHER song with absolutely MAD basswork. Is It Luck? is just bogus. Positively nuts. How can someone play this kind of riff? It might have been played slow and then sped up. The song's pace is very fast, as if they were doing a speedy cover of someone else's song. The vocals go wooshing by you and you have some fancy guitar work and some awesome basswork and that's exactly why I love Primus. JUST LISTEN TO THAT! That's unhuman, that bass. That's yet another one of the most amazing things I've heard on the bass guitar. Hey, the song just switched into a quiet guitar beat and some jibberish vocals. That's I guess how Primus makes it onto a progressive website. But then it just jumps back into that original insane groove. There really isn't much to this song, just some great musicianship.

Grandad's Little Ditty is typical Primus! Haha. Just a goofy novelty song thrown in.

Tommy The Cat is famous for being credited as Les Claypool's best work. Regarded by many as some of the best basswork of all time. You can't understand the Tom Waits vocals. It just kind of grooves on as the weird vocals are said. There's a pretty good guitar solo going on. The basswork is average Les until he starts a little solo here. It's really good but it lasts maybe...10 or 15 seconds? I don't know why this is hailed as a bass legend, I haven't heard anything that absolutely blows my mind yet. There's a nice scream by Claypool there at the end. Kind of an overrated song.

Sathington Waltz is something only Primus would do. It's just a slow rambling band jam with some weird instruments. I believe you can hear someone saying "That was nice!" at the very end.

Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers starts with this nice chugga-chug bassline and then kicks in to a nice heavy funk line which is genuine Claypool. Has some nice guitar solos and musicianship. A good song, kind of typical Primus.

Fish On starts with some very melodic bass, almost sound like an acoustic guitar, that's how it's played.The drums start up to reveal a good slower, dark jam. It sounds like the story is about Larry LaLonde, I thought I heard Les just say something about how he was fishing with Larry LaLonde. The concept of having a song span multiple albums through various chapters is very innovative though. I haven't heard of it done before this, so hats off to Primus for that. This is one of the better songs on the album I'd say. There hasn't been any flashy musicianship so far, just a good quality jam. Then it progresses into a faster jam with a rumbling-tumbling, low, barely-audible bassline. Then it progesses yet again to a mid-tempo melody. This is by far their most progressive work I have heard! It's a little quick progressive ballad. A highlight.

The last song is Los Bastardos (which lasts for 2:38 incase anyone needs to know). What a rip off of Frizzle Fry! The last track is like a return to one of the first tracks. Just how on Frizzle Fry, there's To Defy the Laws of Tradition and then To Defy. This is so cheap! It's an exact spin-off of themselves. It's got that angry, thumping riff. It's a nice way to end the album though. It fades in as if it was coming back from Here Come the Bastards.

WHEW. OKAY. OVERALL! This is a good album but definitely not as good as Frizzle Fry. I'd say it's about even with Pork Soda, except Pork Soda has some really great tracks that are some of my favorite Primus and some that are absolutely awful, where as this album is more or less flat. Most of the tracks are pretty good but not fabulous, there are a few that are pretty amazing. However there are no terrible moments that drag the album down. It's good in that sense. But, in my opinion, it lacks a My Name is Mud or DMV or Too Many Puppies or Spaghetti Western moment, a song that truly shines and stands out. Do NOT buy this before Frizzle Fry, which you need to go out and get immediately. Get this if you like Frizzle Fry or Pork Soda. It's a good album and won't dissapoint you but yeah, they have done better. Sorry for the enormous review, by the way. Cheers.

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