Primus
Suck On This

THE REVIEW

First album by Primus, released in 1989, and which immediately caught the critics' attention due to its hard-to-classify genre.

A genre that the band still offers today, albeit with outcomes that are undoubtedly less original than back then, but which still grants each song a refinement worthy of their early days.

Technically speaking, the absolute monster Les Claypool is joined by two other exceptional musicians such as Larry Lalonde, a guitarist with a thrash-metal background (in Possessed) and Tim ‘Herb’ Alexander, a drummer rumored to be self-taught; the combination of 3 technically impeccable styles, intricate and so personal, would lead in 9 cases out of 10 to the impossibility of coexisting in a band, in the 10th case to Primus.

About the record, it’s a live without frills and without much talk; it starts right away with "Join The Fisherman," still a classic today and from my point of view one of Primus's best songs ever: rhythmic, catchy, and spot-on as an opening.

The album proceeds without sterile fillers, with the usual absolute mastery made even more evident by the live factor but also with the usual self-irony (and not taking themselves too seriously) that dresses Primus in a fairground rock-band attitude even when they embellish their songs with little virtuoso touches. The cover stands out (the first in a long line of cartoon absurdities so dear to Les Claypool), while the lyrics are ironic and light-hearted, in some parts purely nonsense: and the music in this case takes even more center stage.

Other beautiful tracks include "Frizzle Fry" (which will be the title track of the band's second work) with its almost 6 slower minutes and that closes the album, the flagship "Tommy The Cat" presented at almost every concert (and always performed differently), "The Heckler" with Les having the audience introduce the song with a nice ‘Larry you're a BASTARD’, "Harold On The Rocks" showing nice tempo changes.

A honest album, certainly well-played and for this reason, I would recommend it to everyone, even if Primus's style doesn't attract the listener on the first try and, above all, risks being too "difficult" for those who love other genres. For anyone who likes other work by Primus, it’s an album absolutely worth getting.      (Jx)