Ween's New 'La Cucaracha' Is More Siesta Than Fiesta

[this article was originally published October 29th, 2007 for Amazon.com]

I somehow feel as though I could blame myself. Maybe I'm just not "getting it". Ween has always been a band that's sheer tongue-in-cheek brilliance could easily go unappreciated by those who aren't "in tune" to it. It's subtle and brash, and dry and witty at the same time. Stylistically, you never quite know what to expect from album to album; but I've been a Ween fan for so long, I can't believe this one has gone over my head. 

Don't get me wrong, La Cucaracha is not a bad album. It's inconsistent, it's entirely lacking and it's a sure sign of a band that has sloughed off a little bit - but it's not bad. The engineering is beautiful, and while most of these songs are flat-out boring, one can't deny that they spent a lot of time in the studio trying to make them not so. 

Every Ween CD to date, even going back to their first effort (God-Ween-Satan: The Oneness) has had several stand-out tracks, and a driven presence from beginning to end. La Cucaracha comes off like a cobbling together of random songs that didn't quite work out. Although the album starts out promising: the sudden burst of electronic feedback during a drum solo in the opening track "Fiesta" is rather clever, and "Blue Balloon" is a floating little acid trip that puts the listener right into that sweet space without any "substantial" assistance (if you get what I mean). By the third track, however ("Friends"), one feels jolted out of the mood and inclined to raise their eyebrows a little. Even if you can forgive it as a just plain stupid song (and yes, I know that Ween makes a joke of what would otherwise be termed, by any other artist, a "stupid song" - but this just didn't hit that mark), the record drops another dud with "Object". "Learnin' To Love" spikes things up a bit, but the lyrics are so lackluster, you tap your foot more in an effort to get into it than by genuine enjoyment. In fact, the only track on this alum that really displays that Ween feeling is "With My Own Bare Hands". It's blatantly vulgar, it's laced with relentless guitar, but it's unfortunate that it is still not enough to make the entire album worthwhile.

Only because Ween has such a solid track record, I think we can all allow them forgiveness for this one let-down.