Prior to the release of its eighth studio album,
Ween claimed that
Quebec represented a return to the "browner side" of the band, an assertion that surely warmed the hearts of longtime followers. If you're not sure what the "browner side" is, it's their predilection for weirdness, both creepy and cheerful, that has largely been absent since expert studio-craft entered the picture with
Chocolate & Cheese -- a record that had its share of strangeness ("Spinal Meningitis [Got Me Down]" is as unsettling as pop music gets, no matter how darkly funny it is), but surely exhibited their musicality.
Deaner and
Gener are many things but liars they are not, and
Quebec is indeed the strangest album
Ween has made since
Chocolate & Cheese, but the lessons of
12 Golden Country Greats,
The Mollusk, and
White Pepper have not been forgotten. This is
Pure Guava performed with the precision and cleanliness of
White Pepper -- perhaps a mixed blessing for some (those who long for the Scotchguard-fueled madness of
The Pod), yet it's a sheer delight for those who patiently sat through the longest period between
Ween albums yet. If
Quebec has any faults, it's that it is more a collection of songs than a unified record and, sometimes, those songs seem to be included just to get things weird again. Then again, that's kind of the point of
Quebec -- it's a clearinghouse of ideas, jokes, experiments, and jams that gains its own momentum through its lack of cohesion, not the least because it feels like they're stretching their legs now that they're on an indie label again (this is their first record for Sanctuary after nearly a decade on Elektra).