Track Listing

1. I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight
2. Mollusk
3. Polka Dot Tail
4. I'll Be Your Jonny on the Spot
5. Mutilated Lips
6. Blarney Stone
7. It's Gonna Be (Alright)
8. Golden Eel
9. Cold Blows the Wind
10. Pink Eye (On My Leg)
11. Waving My Dick in the Wind
12. Buckingham Green
13. Ocean Man
14. She Wanted to Leave (Reprise)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32063 in Music
• Released on: 1997-06-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .19 pounds

Amazon.com
Bruce Springsteen used the Jersey Shore as the backdrop for his tragic-heroic tales of everyday people in nowhere places. Ween, as you might expect, have a slightly different take on the proud coastline between New York and Atlantic City, the place where they recorded much of their new album, The Mollusk. Gene and Dean are more interested in dead jellyfish, rusted beer cans, flotsam and jetsam, dirty syringes and other assorted detritus that washes up. As for the kind people who live near the water? Ween's only interested in the ones who lurk at amusement park freak shows--and even then, only the really twisted ones. The Mollusk was made between rounds of surf-fishing for bluefish and bass--both before and after the water pipes burst in their winter beach house/studio, leaving recording equipment adrift in an indoor flood. Naturally, the album sounds thoroughly soaked. This is Ween's 'wet' album, in much the same way last year's 12 Golden Country Greats was their Nashville album. Songs like "The Golden Eel" and "Ocean Man" mine the water motif quite literally, while the hilarious title track and "Polka Dot Tail" take it one step further, the first by aping the dopey Brit folk mysticism of Donovan's "Atlantis" and the second by lumbering whimsically like "Yellow Submarine." Other tracks, such as the opening ditty "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight," are more impressionistically soaked: the piano notes sprinkle lightly, the tuba plods like a foot through mud, and the vocals warp as if they were accidentally thrown into the washing machine. Though they're good enough songwriters to play it straight and almost get away with it ("It's Gonna Be" sounds pulled from the Peter Cetera songbook), the Ween boys are at their best on songs like "Mutilated Lips," when they're foraging through the grotesque, the surreal, the outright nasty--anything that titillates their sick sense of humor. They're still guys who get off on weird sounds (such as "Pink Eye"'s vacuum cleaner melody and dog bark percussion) and wiener jokes ("Waving My Dick in the Wind"). And what's most fun for us is hearing how much fun it still seems to be for them. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

A nautical-themed masterpiece
Ween threw everyone a curveball as usual with "The Mollusk". This album is much like it's multi-genre predecessor "Chocolate & Cheese" on the surface. But if you look deeper, you will find that there is a focused nautical concept to the album.

The title track sweeps you off into a harmonious atmosphere early on in the album. Gene and Dean create a universe of soundscapes that tickle yours ears from that point on. "Polka Dot Tail" paints a vivid picture of a whale splashing around in the water. "The Blarney Stone" displays a bar full of drunkin pirates. You can just imagine the beer mugs being thrown around in a drunken haze; I know it was like that when I saw them live. "Mutilated Lips" is probably my favorite track on here. The chorus itself will get stuck in your head, as it is incredibly catchy and captivating. "It's Gonna Be (Alright)", a slower number, sticks with the nautical theme, throwing in sounds of a submarine under the sea. "Waving My D*ck in the Wind" is a very funny pseudo-country style song. "Buckingham Green" is an epic in itself with great lyrics. I can go on and on about every song on this album, they all add to the greatness of The Mollusk.

The songwriting and performance along with the watery concept behind the album make for a very concise and focused gem. The Mollusk will take you away from the world of other boring played out concepts that flood MTV and our radio waves. Some people may look at The Mollusk as a joke album, or misinterpret the purpose of what they do. You just have to look a little deeper. This is truly a unique piece of modern progressive rock. This is Ween's most focused seminal work; it will blow you away.

This is the one...
When people ask me what is the one ween album that you need, i say that you need all of them. This is the best one, though. ween albums always seem to be a mixed bag as far as musical styles go, ranging drastically between tracks, you never know what is going to happen after the two second silence between songs. that is the beauty of ween, no matter how brown and poop-scented it may be. there have been a few (if not all) ween albums that i hated after the first listen, only to come back a couple of days later begging for more. after you familiarize and get comfortable with it, you come to love it similiar to taking cough syrup.

but the mollusk is on a level of it's own. it is a concept album that is best heard from start to finish. it starts with a little waltzy cover of "dancing in the show tonight". it is an odd place to start, especially hearing the childish vocals. next is "the mollusk", a song that every human with a soul loves upon their first listen. this song brought back man beach memories from my childhood, fishing with uncles, etc. "polka dot tale" is brown and not my favorite, prolly my least on the album. "i'll be your johnny on the spot" is a nice quick tune that makes my gas petal foot push harder. "mutilated lips" is an amazing song that makes me want to burst and implode at the same time. words, aside from its very lyrics, can't descrbe how i feel about this song that has the most amazing (and quite possibly longest) chorus ever. "the blarney stone" hits home for me as well. i'm irish, i drink, and i love rowdy pubs. "It's gonna be" is the intermission for the audience. it is a nice little love song, but feel free to go to the bathroom while it's playing. "The Golden Eel", I can't reveal any of it's secrets either. "Cold Blows the Wind" is another love type ballad, just a much darker one. Has a medieval tone to it and Ilike it a lot. Melodrama. "Pink Eye" is lots of random noises as it's palate for aural delight. "Waving my D*ck in the Wind" is a happy upbeat song that reminds me of old black & white shows like Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie & Harriet with a spritz of weenery of course! :) "Buckingham Green" is a hard hitting emotional tune that sounds like old school Ozzy. "Ocean Man" is a hoppy boppy ballad of the ocean. a great song to clap to when the pretty girls are listening with you! "She wanted to Leave"... Unfortunately the album has to end somewhere and this seems like a fine song to do it with. The lyrics are sad but at least the protagonist drinks his rum on his ship in the end.... And it ends with a downtempo beat of "dancing in the show tonight" with the sound of waves crashing in the background.

This is one fabulous package, the Mollusk is. Easily a five star album and one of my favorites of all time.

PS: IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING to purchase this album, do yourself a favor; buy it in the beginning of the summer when the weather is nice. I found that most enjoyable. I also made a promise to myself to only listen to it during those three months. Otherwise, I'd be really frigging sick of it by now.

Accepting only fresh brine....
I remember the day I bought The Mollusk. I had already been familiar with Ween's inventive, diverse & bitingly sarcstic music since 1992's Pure Guava. It seemed to me that every album since Pure Guava became more and more polished, expansive and exciting. Before buying THE MOLLUSK, Ween had created enough great music, for me, to be a lifelong fan. As I listened to the profound tracks of THE MOLLUSK for that first time, I realized that Ween was now in the league of great rock bands that I had admired all of my life.

Just as "12 Golden Country Greats" was a brilliant and hilarious take on country (If you don't laugh during "Piss Up A Rope", there's something very wrong with you), "THE MOLLUSK" is just as brilliant in it's take on progressive rock. If you enter the album with a quality sense of humor, you'll be taken on a fantastic ride (a perfect marriage of melodic,incredibly catchy music, with the kind of humor that ZAPPA would be proud of.)

... The Mollusk loves it's own irreverence and you will too (if you're cool, that is) Top tracks(to me)are: THE MOLLUSK (like many tracks on this great album, The Mollusk is a brilliantly sarcastic take on the pompous and grandiose lyrics of progressive rock: "Hey little boy come walk with me, and bring your new found mollusk along, does it speaketh of the trinity, can it gaze at the sun with it's wandering eye?" The music is wonderful as well (straight outta '73!)

I'LL BE YOUR JOHNNY ON THE SPOT(I've come up with my own special dance for this intense, kick-ass track...you probably wouldn't want to see the dance.)

MUTILATED LIPS (an absolutely brilliant song reminicent of Pink Floyd, Zappa etc. with fantastic lyrics; the chorus is the highlight. Great riff too!)

THE BLARNEY STONE (If the Irish didn't already get a bad rap, this authenticly insane *drinking song* will cement it!)

WAVING MY DICK IN THE WIND(somehow this reminds me of George W.Bush)

BUCKINGHAM GREEN (The most overt example of Ween's progressive rock parody on the album with string section and all. The song has a very dramatic feel but the opening line lets you know that they're having alot of fun here: "A child without an eye..made her mother cry..why ask why? ..She kept her child clean, on Buckingham Green." Later: "Summon the queen, spoke the child of eye"

OCEAN MAN (This song shows you what talent for pop WEEN has, within their sarcastic insanity. "Ocean man" reminds me of The Kinks on a good day. The song has a great "flowing" quality. The fact that songs like this, are not played on the radio is THE reason that MUSIC fans don't listen to the radio. They opt to listen to their albums. I'd also like to say that the free flowing moog in "

PINK EYE (On my leg)" sounds like ELP's "Lucky Man" moog, after a lobotomy (and that's a COMPLIMENT!)

Overall, if you're sick & tired & sick of today's excruciatingly mundane attemps at music, give THE MOLLUSK, Chocolate And Cheese, 12 Golden Country Greats or White Pepper a try. If you love great music and great humor, they're all guaranteed to satisfy. In combining sarcastic humor with sophisticated music, WEEN is the best thing since FRANK ZAPPA.