I came down pretty hard on Ween's last album, 12 Golden Country Greats. Once I saw the live show, I regretted every word I wrote about it. To be honest, if I could change my opinion, I would, but that's not something we do here at Pitchfork International. Instead, I'm here to tell you that Ween's newest release, The Mollusk, ranks with the new Yo La Tengo as best album of 1997.

This time, Ween takes on the classic bong piloted prog-rock albums of the early '70s. There are heavy skid marks left by Floyd, ELP, the Moody Blues and the like on the surface of The Mollusk. The title track is a festival of analog keyboards, cheesy flugelhorns, and a spoken word monologue ("There are three things that spur the mollusk from the sand...") But there are also fucked up polka pisstakes ("Polka Dot Tail"), orchestral pomp ("Buckingham Green"), a leftover country tune ("I'm Waving My Dick in the Wind"), tin pan alley by way of the Residents (the opening "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight"), and probably the single greatest Moody Blues knockoff/ parody/ homage that's ever been written ("She Wanted to Leave"). The real stunner, though, is "It's Gonna Be Alright." Not to be confused with the classic Ramones tune of the same name, this is another one for the "We Love Prince" catalog. Coming from any other band, it would be utter crap. Ween takes all these cliches and elevates them beyond the next great high school slow dance song. You gotta hear this one to believe that the guys who did "LMLYP" and "She Fucks Me" would turn around and spin this one out of their craniums.

A good friend of mine has compared Ween to the Beatles and how the Beatles took all sorts of pop music and turned it on its ear. You kow, after listening to The Mollusk, it's not hard to imagine what kind of White Album these crazy motherfuckers from Pennsylvania could crank out one of these days.

-Jason Josephes