Customer Reviews

God Ween Satan-Anniversary Edition

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The craziest, wackiest, quirkiest, humorous, freewheeling, funnest most unique Ween album ever. A mix of indie, lofi, punk, metal, pop and comedy rock makes this album one of the coolest albums I've ever heard. This album displays the great relationship Gene and Dean have together as song writers. It is clear that they are having so much fun making the music, adding thier heart and soul into every song on the album. It is a great 76 minute adventure of ever changing joy. The remastered sound is superb; you can even notice the quality difference on a little boom box. Some of the best tracks (in my opinion) include: I'm in the mood to move, Fat Lenny, Bumblebee (both parts), Don't Laugh (I Love You), Nan and the crazy psychedelic Blackjack. God Ween Satan: The Oneness is an experience in itself, that everyone with an open mind should hear.

This album is the epitome of Ween. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, they're a couple of guys ("brothers" Gene and Dean Ween - obviously psyeunoms) who make extremely bizarre and downright hilarious music. They typically sing in weird voices (even altering them to sound like they just gulped loads of helium), and worship something named the "Boognish". What sets them apart from someone like Weird Al is that you don't feel like you're listening to a novelty act, because they're extraordinarily talented musicians. "GodWeenSatan: The Oneness" is their first album, comprised of no less than 29 extremely lo-fi recordings. But even in their early days (when the guys were about 20 years old), they're able to showcase a wide diversity in musical styles (this diversity would increase with each subsequent album).

I usually go track-by-track in my reviews, but there's too damn many of them, and it would go over the word limit, so I'll just point out various highlights.

The opening cut, "You F'ed Up", is classic Ween: it's a harsh slice of pure heavy metal, with some of the most offendingly hilarious lyrics ever devised. I won't even try to quote them here. "Common B*tch" is quite similar, and also great.

"Fat Lenny" has Gene (who sings almost all of the songs) spitting out lyrics in a tone of voice eerily similar to Cartman from South Park (despite the fact that it was released in 1990). "I Gots a Weasel" is a faux blues number, while "Squelch the Weasel" is a medieval folk pastiche (also kinda sounds like Simon & Garfunkle)

The two funniest "songs" on the album are "I'm In the Mood To Move" and "Blackjack". Both of them are built upon a very sparse musical backdrop, and feature Gene and Dean "singing" (not really) some bizarre phrases ("Big Black Betty, Little Spanish Eddie.."), obviously inside jokes, yet they're still hilarious. On "Blackjack", they can't even contain their laughter, which makes it all the more funny.

Songs like "Cold & Wet", "Stacey", and "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree" contain guitar solos that further enforce that these guys actually have talent despite their goofyness. They're not exactly Hendrix or Clapton-like guitar solos..but they're good enough to enforce that these guys are musically able. They even casually toss off an absolutely perfect pop song, "Don't Laugh (I Love You)", which features those Chipmunks/Helium like vocals I alluded to earlier.

"Nicole" is another slower song with a two chord reggae beat that goes on and on and on, but it's great. Same with "L.M.L.Y.P" (Let Me Lick Your ___), a blatant Prince sex/funk parody (it even borrows lyrics from a Prince song).

"Birthday Boy" is one of the best songs, and is actually kind of touching (seriously!). It's a slow, electric guitar ballad with some answering machine messages and a few seconds of "Echoes" by Pink Floyd played at the end.

They even delve into jazz ("Never Squeal"), gospel/a cappela ("Up on the Hill"), latin music ("El Camino"), folk (the extremely brief "Old Man Thunder") 60's/70's style hippie rock ("Hippy Smell") and noisy psychadelia ("Licking the Palm for Guava"/"Mushroom Festival in Hell"). The aforementioned "Marble Tulip Juicy Tree" is prog rock-ish, something they'd further explore on later albums like "The Mollusk".

If you've never heard any Ween music before, this album might scare you off. At 70 minutes long, it'll take a good 5 listens before everything starts falling into place..or, not falling into place I guess. "Chocolate & Cheese" is probably the best place to start, as it's a much more polished sound, while still retaining the bizarre humor that makes them great. But if you want to hear Ween at their most twisted and, IMHO, best, give "The Oneness" a shot. You'll be a Boognish worshipper in no time.

Best Songs: Birthday Boy, Marble Tulip Juicy Tree, Nan, Blackjack, Cold & Wet, L.M.L.Y.P, Mushroom Festival In Hell, You F'd Up, Fat Lenny.

Leave it to Ween to release a 25th Anniversary Reissue of an album that's eleven years old. In addition to the three bonus tracks "Bumblebee Part 2," "Stacey," and "Hippy Smell," this album features "State of the Art 39-bit Remastering" and was "Enhanced with T-Base Pro Linear '46' Phasing." Noise never sounded better. Really, it never did.

The sound quality on this release is way better than the original cd, and the bonus tracks are pretty good. It would be better if the bonus tracks were at the end. As it is, they are sprinkled throughout, and I think it interrupts the flow of the album, but hey, that is a minor complaint. The final point is, this is a great remaster of an already classic release.

I've owned this album for a long time, and always loved it. But this one is better. I received the album yesterday, and have not been able to really tell whether the sound quality has improved, since I do not have a good cd-player at the moment. The bonustracks are great though, Bumblebee pt 2 is absolutely hilarious! Just buy it

And remember, they play Gospel music...

This is probably one of Ween's most interesting albums. In the cover there is a story of the brothers Dean and Gene Ween and their encounter with Boognish, who is displayed on the front cover of the album. They go on to say that Boognish is the embodiment of two extremes: Good and Evil. The musical styles of this album are more or less a reflection of this concept. The gist of this album is punky, funky, and ultimately delerium, ABSOLUTELY a Ween album to say the least. There is even a funky cover of Prince's "Let me lick your p***y". This is definetely an album for Ween affecionados. Those who are recently tuning in to the band may do well to pick up "Chocolate and Cheese" or "White Pepper". Like the title of one of the albums songs, this disc is like a mushroom festival in hell. Hail Boognish!

like others i own the original version. the comparison is 28.8 vs cable modem. this is definitely worth buying, as it is so much improved over the original which was a masterpiece in its own right. buy this album!!!

...and now that it is gone, I really miss it. I was more of a casual ween fan before I heard this album. after i heard godweensatan i realized there is no such thing as a casual ween fan. you are either on the poop bus or you are off the poop bus.

i don't think it's the best choice as a first ween disc to buy. go with chocolate and cheese first.

at a first listen [godweensatan] i thought to myself, "now this is really stretching it. really." now that i can't find the album i feel like a wounded soldier who's lost a limb. i still feel it, i knew what it was like to have it, it is still with me, i want the dam*ed thing back.

"don't laugh, i love you" is the best song on the album. the end of it is the best part. the end of it is boognish incarnate, bottom line. i need to hear it again. those of you who have heard it know exactly what i am talking about. at a first listen it sounds downright inexcusable as a song. upon further thought, however, it makes a lot of sense.

;o) enjoy.

they really are one of the greatest bands ever, probably the most talented and diverse up there with Mr. Bungle and Estradasphere and John Zorn. So few like them that have their same mindset, and yet none of them sounds the same. GWS is an incredibly entertaining mixture of wacky punk/metal/rock, spasmodic spontaneous vocals, surreal takes on other genres (shoegazer, baroque, reggae, hippy; often done with breathless or odd results), and weird uncategorizable experiments ("Blackjack" is an absolute classic. there's nothing else like it. so friggin weird. listen to it and be awed). Probably Ween's most fun to listen to, makes you hop put of your seat in convulsions, spilling gibberish all the while. hey, are you gonna finish that Danish? Meryl Streep.

I can't believe how long it's been since this came out. I take offense to the person who said "punk" as a bad thing. Punk can be good when it's done well, as can all forms of music (I love a lot of old-school hardcore stuff). It can also be horrid (like when Guns N Roses attempted to do it or most of the awful pop/punk bands of today). In this case, yes there is a definite punk sound in many of these songs, but Ween put their own twist on it, as they did with country, funk and even Irish music later on. I still pull this album out once in a while to this day and every time I do it, I am thoroughly reminded of why I love this band. While I'd rate my Ween faves as a tie between "Pure Guava" and "Chocolate And Cheese", there IS NO perfect starting point for a first-time Ween listener. There's simply too much to digest and one record is not necessarily reflective of them all. It's pretty much a crap-shoot, but if you hear the right record you just might end up being hooked like I am. I think this album is very much as important as their later recordings.