Primus : "the Desaturating Seven"

Based off of a children's book this does have the narrative concept album feel.It is not until they get into "the Seven" that we get into the kind of grooves you expect from these guys. There is a tension to the opening song, it just feels like it's an intro to the album rather than a song on it's own two legs. The Rush quality to their music is more apparent in how some of the progressions wind around themselves. The harder quality that used to bring them close to being metal is not present and really I haven't listened to much these guys have done since the "Brown Album", so the direction they are currently in is not much of a surprise to me. They have been through more drummers than Spinal Tap so it is good to see Tim Alexander back in the fold.

In many ways this album flows like "2112" or "Caress of Steel" with the interludes of clean guitar bridging this album together. If you like more progressive noodling then this is an album for you as it takes some time before the drums converge in on "the Trek". Two and a half minutes later the drums kick in. Two minutes later the groove comes back in stronger making the song more engaging. With only two songs over the 7 minute mark these songs are not long wandering jams and fairly compact for these guys. Claypool's vocals take on more of a ranting Tom Waits like pattern as the bouncing "Scheme" comes to life. Alexander's drums sound very crisp and I like what he does with the accents on his cymbals here.

There are a bunch of guitar noises and noodles being boiled going into  "the Dream". Making it another song where we are over two minutes in before the drums kick it. This is darker and harder. The groove stays pretty angular so it doesn't hook me in as strong though I like the mood.  The formula for this album is clearly lets hang on the tension for two minutes before getting into it , though this one goes past that point. The drums mainly just come in as accents. While we know what Les Claypool does, I think once we are past "Pork Soda" the novelty of that had worn off and it's how well does that work in context of a song. The chemistry of the trio is still intact when they hit the groove ,as they recapture some of the feel of their older more classic work on this one. As a whole Primus fits back nicely into their brand of prog rock I'll give it an 8.5 as fans will dig it.