Ween

Perhaps one of the greatest musical crimes of the last 20 years is the fact that Ween have been constantly labeled as "just a joke band" on the level of parody artists such as Weird Al Yankovic. I guess this is mostly the fault of the band, who continues to release songs with titles such as "Touch My Tooter" and "Piss Up a Rope", and partially the fault of Elektra, who released the constant "worst song of the year" chart-topper "Push th' Little Daisies" as their only single. Depending on what album you pick up, Ween do have the tendency to come off as something of a piss-take, but that impression won’t last long – their music is as dense and labored as any other 90’s alt-rock band you could name, and twice as well-written.

The problem with the band is that they're so hard to define - they'll play adult contemporary, pop music, hard rock, Latin, soul, prog, country, as well as a few genres that aren't quite defined within the span of even one album, meaning that a Ween mix CD could probably fool someone not paying close attention into thinking every song was by a different band. Their genre excursions should be looked upon the same way as the rest of their music - half tribute, half parody, and anyone who says that a song that's somewhat parody can't also qualify as a fantastic song need not apply (ever heard of Frank Zappa?) Their strength is in nailing whatever genre they're doing's defining characteristics, and in some cases sound positively genuine. They're the Beatles and the Frogs rolled up into one, with a reverence for offbeat songwriting comparable only to early They Might Be Giants. What this does is make the band impossible to pigeonhole into one or two 'genre' categories, meaning you can't really say, "if you like band X, you'll like Ween!", since almost no other band has even half these guys' scope. So when the question "what do they sound like?" comes up, it's a little tough to answer. There’s at least one Ween album out there for everybody.

As for their discography - the nature of their music makes it pretty tough to like every song on an album, so you've got to know what you're getting before you buy. Their early period, which is their first three albums, are a tough bunch to love - lo-fi, drug-fueled, unfocused, obnoxious, experimental, and too long, but their moments of brilliance are hard to deny, and they were absolutely unique. As such, it's no surprise that the most "hardcore fans" consider these albums to be better than anything that came after, but most new fans should start with their later, more polished material. With these albums Ween came into their own as band to be taken seriously, leaving behind the noise experiments of the early albums for a healthy dose of plain ol' great songwriting, although they never quite left the strange lyrics and juvenile humor behind.

But why should they? That's why we love 'em...

God Ween Satan (1990) ****
The first Ween album came out when the boys were just barely out of their teens, but having released a number of homemade tapes over their high school years, they were up to the challenge. Well, kind of. I doubt very many of these songs, besides the ones that lead into each other, were meant to be played together, making God Ween Satan seem fairly choppy and deranged, but what can you expect? After all, the album's nearly 80 minutes long, consisting of a whopping 29 songs (although that includes the 3 bonus songs mixed in the tracklist of the new re-release - and without looking it up, you'd probably never be able to tell which ones they were), and I doubt there's anyone who likes them all. Probably the best advice is to take it with an open mind, lest you ignore some of the brilliant, drug-fueled experimentation ("Mushroom Festival in Hell"). Okay, so maybe the experimentation is what grinds the album to a halt near the end ("Blackjack"), but besides that, this is all pretty listenable - lots of it is loud and obnoxious ("You Fucked Up", "Common Bitch", "Bumblebee"), but there's lots of interesting genre hopping along the way. Bebop, swing, doo-wop, gospel, and even a Prince parody ("L.M.L.Y.P") make their way before the final pot anthem closes out the album (make sure you turn up your volume for that one, or you'll probably miss it altogether). Most of the really good songs come toward the end - the heartfelt "Birthday Boy", begins with a spoken "Jesus Christ, pain!", setting the tone for a bitter and over distorted guitar ballad that shows Gene's vulnerable side, and the catchy psychedelic rock of "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree" and fast-paced country of "Hippy Smell" are among the album's best cuts. There's certainly not many albums with this much creativity floating around, but it's far from perfect - too much noise and obnoxious vocals (in order to help sound like all the bands they emulate, Ween uses quite a bit of vocal processing), and neither of the 9+ minute songs really needed to be that long - in fact, a good 20 minutes could probably be lopped off the album. Of course, which minutes those are would be huge debate among the fans (and probably the band themselves), so I guess you could just program out the tracks you don't like. Certainly a very good album, but anyone who starts here will need a lot of patience to get past it.

The Pod (1991) ***1/2
The band's most unique album, The Pod came about when the boys were both stuck at home with a wicked case of mono. The result is a totally lo-fi, completely "self-produced", drug-induced mess, but given a couple of listens there's something very uniquely special at work here. Over fuzzed guitar, old, worn out drum machines, plenty of bizarre and modified vocals, and a really twisted sense of song structure are only some of the weird joys you'll find over the album's 76 minute running time. Like the last one, it's almost certainly too long, with too many compositions seemingly made up on the spot ("Boing", "She Fucks Me"), but there's really something to this. Many of the songs seem to hold their own - the bombastic "Dr. Rock", the glam-infused "Captain Fantasy", the hilarious, drug-induced "Stallion pt. 1", and the proto-Mollusk "Right To The Ways And Rules Of" are just too tongue-in-cheek to be taken completely seriously, but they're damn fine compositions! Obviously too many tracks to name, but I really like "Frank", which sounds like something from Hardcore Devo, and some of the real melancholy material such as "Alone" and "Mononucleosis" which reflect what the boys were going through. Hell, there's even a Phil Collins tribute/parody called "Demon Sweat", and what's not to like about that? But man, 76 minutes? It's certainly too bloated, with a good third or so of the tracks not being memorable at all, and halfway through the sloooow tempo of pretty much every track is likely to get to you (save "Sketches of Winkle", a genuine rock song!) Don't start with this one, but many Ween fans really swear by it, so what do I know? All things considered, this is one of the best ‘bad’ albums I own.

Pure Guava (1992) ***
You wouldn't know it by listening to it, but Ween actually got signed to a major label (Elektra) for this album. You have to give Elektra credit for being adventurous, possibly hoping that Ween would use their budget to make a more commercial turn, but this is what we got - a shorter and less serious version of The Pod, lo-fi recordings and all. It's hard to believe an album with such nothing-fests as "She Fucks Me" would have outtakes, so maybe they did this on purpose? It's a lot more fun, but an album with songs like "Poopship Destroyer" and "Touch My Tooter" can only take you so far. Okay, there's quite a few moments of Pod-style goodness in the beginning - the guitar tone on "Little Birdy" rules, and the majestic "Stallion Pt 3" is both hilarious and catchy...do you suppose the South Park guys were inspired by this for that Lemmiwinks episode? No? Well what about "Push th' Little Daisies" - doesn't that sound pretty much exactly like Cartman singing in the end? Or "The Goin' Gets Tough From The Getgo", where the Weens talk just like the South Park Canadians? What's that? DVDA (Trey Parker and Matt Stone's band, mostly known for that awesome "Now You're a Man" song) opened for Ween? Well, guess it's settled then. And like the 'Park, Ween aren't quite on 100% of the time, resulting in a number of half-songs or noise experiments like "Reggaejunkiejew" or "Morning Glory". Some of this stuff like "I Play It Off Legit" and "Hey Fat Boy (Asshole)" aren't even songs at all. Hell, besides "Springtheme" and "Don't Get 2 Close 2 My Fantasy" - most certainly the best tune here, also featured on the movie It's Pat ("I touched the Ween!"), for all of you that saw that wonderful flick - nothing on the 2nd half really seems finished at all. Like The Pod it's interesting and chock full of cool ideas, but also like The Pod it's undeveloped and constantly trying your patience.

Oh, and how did "Push th' Little Daises" become a single anyway? I guess Elektra wanted to release something as a single and found the album didn't really have anything that would fit? Of course, releasing a video during the early, "Beavis and Butthead" days of MTV pretty much guaranteed quite a bit of play, which caused the tune to win several awards to the tune of "worst song of the year" and "most obnoxious song ever", which it pretty much is. Oh, but it's so catchy!

At The Cat's Cradle (rec. 1992, rel. 2008) ***1/2
I like when bands master old performances and release them commercially, especially when we're in an era where a band can release a good-quality live recording to the public within minutes of the show being performed. This puts an emphasis on live albums recorded from about 2006 onward, so it's cool to see a band actually go back in time and release a show from their formative years (well, formative is debatable - this is the Pure Guava tour, so they're 3 albums and several demo tapes into their career already). That said, Ween is a group whose shows seem to get better with age, so why listen to them when they're a couple of stoned kids with guitars and a DAT machine playing half songs to a tiny crowd? Well, for one, this is the only era of Ween that doesn't really have a live release to go with it (and we all know that the studio albums are only half the story), and for two, I actually LIKE some of these half-songs. They sound good enough live, if not a little sloppy at times. The DAT machine does limit what they can do, but you can tell the Weens themselves were open to a bit of interpretation with the tunes and the setlist. Perhaps the best part of this all is the stage banter - they definitely have a sense of humor about themselves, beginning the show with "we must have been really good last time we were here...there's about half the audience", jokingly telling each other that they're in "rare form", introducing "You Fucked Up" by saying, "this is a song about that fuckin' bitch!", and describing the early, stripped down form of "Buckingham Green" as being their "ultimate low point" - they even solo for a few minutes and ask the crowd, "wanna hear it again?" Even when they take requests at the end, they ignore them all and instead play "ReggaeJunkieJew". At least they're having fun. This is a group that sounds like they actually enjoy being on stage and making each other laugh, but musically, it's pretty good too - it's hard to ignore how good a guitar player Dean is even at a young age. Despite their constant claims of "this is what happens when you smoke too much opium", the guys were talented enough to put on a good and occasionally captivating show no matter how high they were. Fans of the early period really should pick this one up, as it's easily the best sounding live release of their early years.

Chocolate and Cheese (1994) ***1/2
Ween hit the studios and turn out an album that's actually fairly NORMAL sounding, thus beginning the second part of their career. Well, "normal" is a relative term - certainly, most of these tracks won't raise an eyebrow on your typical FM station - but put together in this fashion definitely makes for a strange album that seems to switch genre on a track-for-track basis. So you'll get an obnoxious Tom Jones parody ("Take Me Away"), some Philly soul ("Freedom of 76"), great Beatles-like pop tunes ("What Deaner Was Talkin' About"), old-time country ("Drifter in the Dark"), tribal disco ("Voodoo Lady"), an Eddie Hazel-influenced bluesy guitar jam ("A Tear For Eddie"), pure pop ("Roses Are Free"), and on and on. Over the course of 16 tracks, this constant switching makes it tough to get too involved, as only a few of the tracks are real winners ("Voodoo Lady", "What Deaner Was Talkin' About", "A Tear For Eddie"), but it's an interesting listen chock full of solid songwriting. It's all too easy to accuse Ween of lightening up and betraying their roots, but how do you explain the sick and twisted "Spinal Meningitis" or "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony"? Okay, so "Candi" does sound like something off Pure Guava, great. It can stay there. But for every one of those, there’s something that truly is funny – “Take Me Away” is so intentionally straight and generic I can’t help smiling all the way through. With this much jumping around, it would be tough for Ween to put out a truly great album (but certainly doable), and likewise, besides a few tracks, this album really isn't as great as it's often claimed - for one, the songs are pretty much all midtempo and lack energy (once you hear the live versions it's tough to come back to this), and there's just not a high enough percentage of knockouts to really make this a classic. On the other hand, how many bands could ever pull this off and make it not only listenable, but musically sound? Good album to start with? For sure. But Ween would go on to do better than this!

12 Golden Country Greats (1996) ***1/2
Probably the best way to piss off your audience, because this really IS what it claims - a country album all the way through. Okay, so it's not much - there's only 10 tracks here (the 12 refers to the number of musicians), but if you didn't listen to the lyrics, you'd never be able to believe this was Ween, as it sounds like anything else recorded in Nashville (which this actually was).
Now you know what to expect, but how good is the album? The critics and fans alike slammed this to no end. But it's actually surprisingly good - certainly, they've shown us their melodic brilliance in the past, but even when more or less straight faced, they can pull off some fantastic and sentimental tunes like "You Were The Fool" or "Powder Blue", which ends with most of the musicians taking a solo (including a spoken word part by Muhammad Ali, for reasons that aren’t quite clear). The standout track is probably "Piss Up a Rope", which is a downright hilarious parody of the genre (and if it weren't for the deadpan vocals, would be pretty damn believable). There's only one more real 'comedy' track, "Mister Richard Smoker", which is done in a 20's style dance tune, although the lyrics kind of ruin it (it's not much more than a gay joke, and not really a funny one) - surely, tracks like "Fluffy" or "Japanese Cowboy" aren't completely straight-faced, but there's really no funny business - if someone thinks Ween was a joke band, you could build a good counter-argument over this one – as easy as it would be to write this off as a piss-take, after a few listens it becomes clear that you’d have to be fairly passionate about country music to write country songs this good.

Live in Toronto (rec. 1996, rel. 2001) ***1/2
A Chocodog live release documenting a show on the band's country tour, featuring a number of accomplished country musicians called the "Shit Creek Boys". Sadly, they don't do the best tracks off the country album, and in general they seem to shy away from their previous best (sans "Dr. Rock", I guess), so if you're not in love with all of Ween's past, you'll probably find yourself bored at some point. Good thing this band is so skilled, adding fiddles and piano to nearly every track, but they just don't fit into some of the older material ("Spinal Meningitis", "The HIV Song"). However, the high points are fantastic - they turn in a beautiful version of "What Deaner Was Talkin' About", and there's a country-western stompin' rendition of "Pumpin' for the Man" which makes the original look limp and rushed in comparison (which, quite frankly, it is). Oh, and "Push th' Little Daisies" is still obnoxious, but the band accompanies it well, and Gene's lungs seem endless, plus his delivery is hilarious. As with most Ween live releases, there’s enough variation on the songs and funny stage banter to make it worthwhile. They run out of songs to play and drunkenly take requests, resulting in a huge "Fluffy" jam session and a go at "Piano Man", where Gene replaces the chorus with "put some coke on my dick tonight", abruptly ending the song right there. So it's highly entertaining, and it's really great to see the things Ween could do with a talented backing band, but they just don't play to their strengths enough.

The Mollusk (1997) ****1/2
Another album that nobody expected, The Mollusk is a collection of nautical-themed tunes, drawing inspiration mostly from old prog-rock and psychedelia. Not like "Schizoid Man" or anything really crazy, but rather the prettier, more melodic stuff like "Voices in the Sky". Ween pull it off fantastically, resulting in not only their most emotional album yet but also their most well-written. There´s pretty much no filler and plenty of highlights, making this a great listen all the way through. While it´s based off a genre of music that´s generally overblown and pompous, it´s no surprise that Ween makes the album actually fun to listen to. The opening tune, a cover ("I´m Dancing in the Show Tonight") is, at its core, a simple showtune, and yet here it´s warped in a way only Ween could, with a constant flux in the vocal manipulation giving it a dream-like quality. Sure, it does sound really dopey, but this is part of Ween´s genius - it´s the strange sound-effects and vocal tricks that make these tunes particularly memorable, but at their core, they´re musically sound and professionally performed.
Like the country album, there´s nothing too much out of left-field (although the drunken sing-along pirate tune "The Blarney Stone" is the most unexpected, it certainly fits the theme), perhaps the most surprising thing is how convincing Ween can sound when they really play it straight - "It´s Gonna Be Alright" and "She Wanted to Leave" are both particularly moving (even if the latter features a faux-Irish accent), and "Buckingham Green" condenses a side-long prog epic into about three minutes. Best of all there´s the Caribbean-flavored "Ocean Man", maybe the most addictive Ween song ever written - all this band really needs is a catchy hook and a funny voice, and boy does this one have those. All put together this is Ween´s most cohesive and best effort.

Paintin´ the Town Brown (1998)
Ween´s first commercially available live album. This was actually meant as a gift to the fans but the record label didn´t like the idea of a free internet release so they released it commercially. It´s a compilation of bootleg performances, meaning the sound quality isn´t too great, and the performances range from weird to weirder. Disc one is fairly interesting, but disc two spans just three tracks, including two really long jam sessions. Only for the true fans.

White Pepper (2000) ****
Whereas The Mollusk showed that Ween had the skills and the ability to be great, by the time White Pepper rolled around, it was apparent that the group had matured in a way that actually benefitted their music and were starting to come into their own. Gene and Dean were now hitting 30 and making a bid for longevity in the 21st century - this is a carefully arranged and thickly produced pop album that turned the comparisons away from the Butthole Surfers to the Beatles. Oh, it's still Ween - there's plenty of genre-hopping, a few carefully placed profanities, and a sense of good-natured irony throughout - maybe "Pandy Fackler" is a parody of Steely Dan, but the instrumentation and arrangement suggest that it was a parody that they really cared about; at the very least, it shows that Ween were so good at lampooning many different styles because they were talented enough to imitate them. If this album has a theme, it's pop-psychedelia, as the group was able to put together a number of densely produced and professionally written tunes with painstaking detail (witness the Eastern mysticism of "Flutes of the Chi" and the heartbreaking steel guitar in "Back to Basom", as well as the fantastic guitar heroics throughout). In light of this new fixation, it's no wonder that many of the fans called the band out on the lack of "brown" material, but the songwriting makes up for it - who wouldn't enjoy a love song as sweet and hook-filled as the country-twanged "Stay Forever"? Some of it's good enough to make you wonder if the only reason why this didn't get much radio play was because, you know, it's Ween. That said, it's not a total knockout - in addition to the Steely Dan tribute/parody, there's a nod to both Motorhead ("Stroker Ace") and Jimmy Buffet ("Bananas and Blow"), neither of which have much replay value. But it's definitely an album that'll leave you wanting more.

quebec (2003) ****1/2
Who knows if Gene or Dean were going through somewhat of a rough or sentimental time in their lives, because quebec is their most downtempo and depressing release yet. Which of course means that there's actual emotion and feeling in the songs, and with a few exceptions ("Birthday Boy", "Stay Forever", "It's Gonna Be Alright") this is the most genuine Ween have ever sounded. But it’s also one of their best - out of the album's 16 tracks (make sure you get the one with the bonus track "Ohh Vah La" - it's one of their best), there's only one or two that aren't keepers. This is as good a ‘career’ album as you can find - a few of the tracks seem like references to their past work, and there's enough weird noises and twisted musical structures to satisfy even the brownest Weener.
There's a number of well-written songs, such as the fantastic Brit-pop of "Transdermal Celebration", the country-based "Chocolate Town" (featuring my favorite line of the album - "Got me on the porch I'm in the front row, says shit's for real like I don't know, get your punk ass back to the dog show" - delivered completely straight-faced) White Pepper-ringer "Tried and True", and the epic closing tracks "The Argus" and "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)", as well as a good amount of downtempo, guitar-based ambient tracks ("Captain", "Among His Tribe", "Alcan Road"). Although it seems that Ween have abandoned rock for the time being, they do deliver one of their hardest hitting songs yet (“It’s Gonna Be a Long Night”, another Motorhead tribute, but so much better than the last one). And for balance, some welcome weirdness ("Happy Colored Marbles", "So Many People in the Neighborhood") that’s as addictive as some of the better early tracks. It’s not as fun and adventurous as The Mollusk, but it’s more sentimental and personal, and the songwriting is just as good. Don’t miss it.

All Request Live (2003) ***
A live-in-the-studio album where the tracklist was voted on by the fans. It seems like the only fans who bothered to log on and vote were those who loved the 'brown' era of the band, as most of the selections aren't even really songs at all. It's charming to hear the guys tackle things like "Pollo Asado" and "Reggaejunkiejew" in a live setting, but I really wish there was more material that showcased the band's later songwriting genius rather than just "Stay Forever" and "Tried and True". Most hardcore fans would probably love this, as there's four unreleased tracks, including the hilarious rejected Pizza Hut jingle "Where'd the Cheese Go?" The last time I listened to this I hit black ice and crashed my car, but you may have better results.

Live in Chicago (2004) ****1/2
Another from the Chocodog concert series, this one not only showcases modern Ween as an excellent live band, but provides a great live album for new-ish fans who want a taste of what the band's about without having to sit through a 3-disc set or have to hear 30-minute abstract noisefests like "Poop Ship Destroyer". It's based off a DVD which I don't have that apparently contains more tracks than the CD, but the disc does fine without them. Focusing mostly on their more recent song-oriented material (there's only one song from their pre-C&C era, "Pork Roll Egg and Cheese"), it's amazing just how great of a live band these guys have become (or always been?). There's a certain quality here that reminds me of something like King Crimson live circa the 1980's - it's much fuller than the studio albums, and there's a good amount of jamming, although not enough to turn anyone off. A great album for those who, like me, thought that Chocolate and Cheese wasn't exciting enough, since all six tunes from here that were taken from that album are spruced up and rocked out (particularly "Voodoo Lady", which adds a blistering guitar solo), making C&C seem boring in comparison (after hearing the first thirty seconds of "Take Me Away", I knew I'd never hear the studio version the same again). The other tracks don't get such a dramatic transformation (save for "Zoloft", which becomes surprisingly addictive, and "I'll Be Your Johnny on the Spot", which rocks twice as hard), but they're hardly any worse. Okay, the closing "Ocean Man" doesn't quite capture the awesomeness of the studio version, but that was mostly production work anyway, and that's a minor complaint - the point is, this is a disc well worth seeking out, and those who see live Ween as the band's true form would probably agree that this makes a great first purchase.

Shinola, Vol. 1 (2005) ****
A collection of rare tunes spanning all of Ween's career (frustratingly, there isn't a list of when these songs were recorded, but you could probably figure most of them out), and strangely enough, one of their most solid albums ever. It's been said that the worst judge of an artist's work is often the artist themselves, which certainly rings true here - every single one of these tracks could have been used to improve one of their albums. Three of the tunes in particular ("Gabrielle", "Someday", "The Rift") are just too well done to be confined to a rarities collection, but when you consider how solid the rest of the album is, suddenly that doesn't seem so bad. Okay, so maybe "Someday" and "Israel" are just too unlike Ween to have made an album (like that's stopped them in the past), but the rockabilly "Gabrielle" sounds like it could have been a hit circa the late-70's, and "Monique the Freak" is as spot-on of a Prince homage as anything I've heard. Sure, some of the early weirder tracks are kind of grating ("Big Fat Fuck"), but as a whole, only The Mollusk and quebec are as solid as this. This may be the only time I recommend an outtakes collection as a first purchase - it contains flashes of many of the band's sides (including their 'brown' period), lots of immediately memorable tracks, and is a great litmus test - if you can't get into this, you probably wouldn't be able to get into too many of their other releases either.

The Friends EP (2007)
A neat little release to show off some of the 50-some tracks that were written for the next album. The title track is certainly the best, showing Ween take on something they've never done before - vocoder-heavy dance music. It's so over the top that it's hard not to smile, and the vocal hook is good enough to warrant lots of repeat listens. If the synth-crazy overly upbeat arrangement seems to be parody of Crazy Frog, then get this - the track was produced by Reinhard Raith, the man who was Crazy Frog. Anyone who begrudgingly admitted that they actually liked Cher's "Believe" would have a blast with this. The other four tracks take on a variety of styles - funk, reggae, Latin, and slow ballad, and even if they're not as great as the opener, they're good enough to make this a solid listen and a good omen for the upcoming (and overdue, I might add) Ween release.

La Cucaracha (2007) ***1/2
A little disappointing, considering they've essentially undone all the work they did on quebec, but solid nonetheless. This is Ween's most diverse record since Chocolate & Cheese - again, they seem to be emulating a different band on each song, and as expected the results are all over the map. "With My Own Bare Hands" is perhaps the ultimate cock-rock song with some of Ween's funniest lyrics yet, and "Learnin' to Love" is the catchiest bluegrass song I've ever heard. On the other hand, "The Fruit Man" is generic reggae that was done better on the EP, and "Object" doesn't have much outside of the creepy lyrics to sustain it. Still, the hit-to-miss ratio is positive, and the band shows themselves as ambitious as ever, attempting a long jam session which kind of works ("Woman and Man"), a semi-straight faced vocoderized ballad ("Spirit Walker"), a jazzy adult contemporary tune ("Your Party"), and even an upbeat brassy instrumental ("Fiesta"). "Friends" appears here in the original version - not as much punch, but just as catchy. Whether or not you like this stuff has to do with how much you can stand the styles they emulate, and predictably this got a lot of average or semi-positive reviews, but almost no great ones (and it seems most just hated it outright, but I really can't understand why - but Ween fans are a strange and unpredictable bunch, and the publications that never really liked the band in the first place slam all their releases anyway), as I doubt anyone could like all these tunes - case in point, "Your Party" is often pointed as the highlight, but I don't really see it. Instead, I like the bizarre, dreamy pop song "Blue Balloon" (featuring one of Gene's voices we haven't heard before), and the surprisingly authentic '70s disco ballad "Sweetheart in the Summer". I'd say it's more of a step back than a step forward, but if anything it shows the band's still got plenty of ideas left.