Artist: Primus
Album: Green Naugahyde
Genre: Experimental Rock
Label: ATO Records/Prawn Song

Collectively speaking, artists are the weirdest group of people I’ve ever come across. And I am talking about “artists” in the all-encompassing sense; painters, graphic designers, writers, musicians, pretty much any profession where 90% of their time is spent sleeping until noon, and sitting around the house in their underwear waiting to be inspired. They all seem to be their own breed of crazy as well; designers are some of the least productive creatures I’ve ever come across, writers hate everyone, and usually have some sort of substance abuse problem, and musicians tend to be either far too self-important, or really just certifiably insane for one reason or another. The latter of course, is much more rare, but when a musician like that turns up, it usually leads to some genuinely interesting projects. And one of the most interesting bands the world has seen in a long time is Primus, the long-running project of the music industry’s resident loony tune, Les Claypool. Truthfully speaking, as interesting as Primus is, I just can’t quite comprehend most of it, it’s quite compelling to listen to, but I wouldn’t say it’s something I would want to really want to listen to all that often. I’ve always thought Primus played into that whole 90’s fad of being weird for the sake of being weird just a bit too much. That isn’t to say that Primus isn’t a group of genuinely talented musicians, they are more talented than almost any musician out there, but the end result can just be a bit confusing at times, to say the least, to the point where no one can actually agree on what genre they can be classified as. Their extremely unique sound has done a lot for them, it has helped them maintain a career for more than 25 years, but there are still many out there that simply can’t quite wrap their heads around what goes on in the minds of the guys in Primus, and that isn’t any fault of their own.

Now, I’m no stranger to Primus, it’s hard for anyone to be, considering their relatively long musical career – they formed a year before Guns N Roses did, if that helps provide any perspective – so their new album Green Naugahyde isn’t completely foreign material to me. Furthermore, I know how important this album really is, this is Primus’ first album since their Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People EP released back in 2003. But even still, musically, it’s a little hard to fully grasp what they’re going on about at times. As a musician, songs like “Last Salmon Man” or “Eyes Of The Squirrel” are extremely entertaining, the drumming is simply out of this world, and the bass work by Claypool is astounding. But that being said, the recording quality doesn’t really seem to be up to par with the level of musicianship; the vocals are a bit low, and some of the instrument tones seem to be a bit hollow. Furthermore, the musicianship can only keep the listener entertained for so long, after awhile, the songwriting has to take over, and I feel like if I were to find fault anywhere with Primus, it would be there. The lack of traditional song structuring, and odd writing style makes this album rather difficult to sit through, but the musicianship does step in from time to time to redeem the album.

Being a Primus fan takes a certain dedication, and a very unique mind, it’s sort of hard to score this album in a broad sense, it isn’t the sort of thing that can appeal to everyone. This album may be downright perfect to someone that is used to Primus, but could be nothing more than noise to the untrained ear. And strictly speaking, I fall into the latter category, and I feel like the same applies to many music fans. But at the same time, I can still appreciate where they are coming from with Green Naugahyde, and still recognize it as a good Primus album, one that fans have been waiting for for quite some time. It just isn’t really something I see myself keeping in a regular rotation, mostly because I’m still not quite sure what it is I’m listening to.

SCORE 7/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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