The Brown Album in Bloomington, MN

The replacement of drummer
Tim "Herb" Alexander
with
Brian "Brain" Mantia
doesn't affect
Primus
' sound in any notable way on
The Brown Album
. That isn't surprising --
Les Claypool
's side project
Sausage
sounds identical to
. What's notable about
is how
Claypool
moves
even further into
progressive
and
jazz-rock
territory, concentrating entirely on the instrumental interplay of the group and caring very little for writing full-fledged songs.
"Shake Hands With Beef,"
the first single from the album, has a reasonably amusing adolescent lyric, but the real attraction of the song is how its thunderous bass riff weaves in and out with the syncopated drums and avant guitar. In that sense, it does let the listener know what the album is about, and very few
fans should be disappointed by what
delivers. It's standard
-- all instrumental interplay and adolescent humor -- but it's delivered with more finesse and skill than ever. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine