Ween

Around the time that Ween was formed in 1984, Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo were two nobodies making home recordings about the good word of Boognish in their basements. Nowadays, the duo is known as spiritual brothers Gene and Dean Ween, frontmen of the band Ween. Catapulted to cult-like status by their rabid fan base, the band's work has appeared everywhere from Honda commercials to Beavis and Butthead. Ween's offbeat pop style returns with the release of their ninth full-length album, La Cucaracha.

The work of Geener and Deaner usually revolves around the satire of revered musical genres such as sea shanty, prog rock and Broadway showtunes, along with songs about fun things like Zoloft. La Cucaracha reaffirms Ween's goofy, mocking tone right at the opener with "Fiesta," a cheesy Mariachi tune one would expect to run into on the crowded streets of Tijuana. The rest of the album seems to be a self-help guide, Ween-style, of course. "Learnin' to Love" is a tale of self-discovery sung in a twangy, hillbilly scat that sounds like it belongs on 12 Golden Country Greats. "Shamemaker" is a poppy confession of repressed anger against one's enemy.

"Your Party" is the ultimate satire of yacht-club culture. Gene speaks about "candies and spices and tri-colored pasta" at a fellow WASP's party, while singing in a mock New England accent against a perfectly-fitting, smooth jazz sax line. But songs like "The Fruit Man" and "With my Own Bare Hands," though consistent with Ween's unpredictable style, take away from the punch of the particularly mocking tunes.

All in all, La Cucaracha is done in general Ween style: make fun of as much different stuff as possible and leave your listeners wondering, "What the f-?" The album would benefit if Ween cut out some of the more inconsistent songs, but then again, that would probably just anger Boognish.