When I first heard about this album back in March, I shrugged my shoulders and told myself “let’s see what happens.” This most likely one-off collaboration album is between Les Claypool and Sean Lennon. You may know Les Claypool from the band Primus, and you also might know Sean Lennon as the son of John Lennon and Yoko. It was hard to imagine how the two would put themselves together, and then I hoped that it would be something strange. It was. That’s not to say this album is not enjoyable, because it’s pure drug/alcohol fueled psychedelic rock. If there’s one thing that I gleaned from this album, it’s that Les Claypool is a fantastic bassist. Sure, everyone’s known that for years, but this album gives him ample time to shine. Luckily, there are four tracks I can share with you in this review, including both parts of the two-movement Cricket and the Genie story. Don’t get too caught up in the lyrics, because there’s nothing too telling other than some generic social commentary floating around in this album. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, yes, this album does actually sound like Primus and the Beatles made music together.

You can actually listen to the album in its entirety for now on a stream at Rolling Stone.

This track, Mr. Wright, really shows off Les’s bass chops. As this album was created solely by Sean and Les, it becomes a musical tug of war between the two as to what track is a “Les” track and what track is a “Sean” track. It’s pretty obvious who takes over for each song, if you’re familiar with these artists. In Mr. Wright, you get pretty much all Les. His bassline is exciting and inventive, and his skills are on full display here. As for the instrument breakdown of this album, Les is just on the bass and microphone, while Sean plays guitar and drums along with co-lead vocals (not at the same time, unless he’s pulling a Phil Collins). The drums are incredibly simple, the guitar whirs back and forth, and the bassline goes and goes. As Claypool songs tend to focus on the bass, this particular one puts it on a pedestal and has everything else play around it. You can hear in the mixing of this album which instrument is main focus for each track, and at least half of them are bass for days. Luckily for us, Les can pull that off.

I couldn’t find any information about the production of this album other than the studio it was created, which happens to be Les Claypool’s house. For a homemade album made between just two guys, it has a lot going on. A live performance of this album could be quite different, and they are on tour now all throughout the country. It doesn’t sound like this project will keep going after this tour, so this may be your one chance to see them if you’re intrigued.

Both parts of the Cricket and the Genie have been posted by the boys, so you can hear both movements. It’s quite fascinating how much Sean sounds like his father. While in many cases, the vocals of the son resemble those of the father, there are a few out there that sound just like them. Simon Collins, son of Phil Collins and frontman of Sound of Contact, is another one of those vocalists that could fool people into believing that Phil was performing on a track. Want to know something else cool about Simon Collins? He plays the drums too, just like his dad!

Back to Cricket and the Genie. It’s a two-part story about a Cricket and a Genie that are friends and do stuff together. Unfortunately, that’s the best I can give you. I was much more focused on the instruments than the lyrics while listening to this album. I guarantee there’s symbolism galore, but you’ll have to find it yourself. While the first movement, The Delirium, tells a story, the second movement, Oratorio Di Cricket, only has the words “you ought to try it, you really ought to try it” with some la la la’s thrown in for good measure. It’s a little light proggy, but not serious enough to go anywhere. It’s pretty simple, which suits this music well. The bassline is fun and smooth and is a bit of a toe tapper. The keyboard goes up and down through the track, giving us some welcome instability to this madness. We don’t need complicated guitar solos and time signature changes and any of that mess for this kind of music. The guitar, vocals, keyboards, and bass effects are plenty and give us a full psychedelic picture. You can even get some serious Frank Zappa vibes from these tracks, which is always a plus.

The final track I can share with you, Bubbles Burst, is a Sean track. You can hear the bass is mixed a little quieter, and has a much greater Beatles feel to it. It’s slow and melodic, and almost sounds like a psychedelic anthem. Other than the Cricket and the Genie, it my be the most complex track on the album. I don’t know who is playing the keyboard for this track, but if I had to guess I’d say that Sean is on that too to fit the mood of this track. The guitar is the main focus of this track, instead of the bass, and there’s even a solo! I didn’t think I’d hear one of those on this album. I jest, but still, it almost seems out of place given the simple nature of many of the previous tracks. It’s a sharp contrast to the other bass tracks like the funky Breath of a Salesman or the bizarre Captain Lariat. It’s kind of a fitting end to the album, between Bubbles Burst and the surprisingly well adjusted There’s No Underwear in Space. The name of that track would make me think the bass would be all over the place, but it was not. It was a calm denouement to an unusual and entertaining album. Instead of going out with a bang, the center of the album was the bang.

There are a few other tracks that I didn’t get to tell you about. I thought of this album sort of like a musical bell curve, with a fairly distinct beginning, middle, and end. The Monolith of Phobos starts us off letting us know that it’s going to be strange but not too heavy. We’re in for a psychedelic treat with this one, as the distortion and guitar effects are on full display here. It then goes into the story of the Cricket and the Genie, followed by Mr. Wright. The intensity lulls for a moment to let us catch our breath from the Cricket story with Boomerang Baby (this song reminds me of a song in particular, and I can’t quite place it and it’s driving me crazy, so any suggestions are welcome as to what it sounds like). It’s a very intriguing and driven song that deserves more praise than this review gives it credit for. The album then dives into a triple wacky bass threat of Breath of a Salesman, Captain Lariat, and Ohmerica. It comes back down to earth a bit with Oxycontin Girl, and then ends with Bubbles Burst and There’s No Underwear in Space.

With that, I’d say the album was put together well, and isn’t bookended. There’s something for everyone (relatively speaking) in this album, given your familiarity with these two artists and their bodies of work. This album was almost like I expected it would be, in that it was a Les Claypool lead collaboration where he was joined by Sean Lennon and his less complex guitars/drums/keyboards. This isn’t a knock on Lennon, but when you let Les Claypool noodle on the bass for a while, it’s hard to keep up. When you let him sing into a vocal distorting microphone, all bets are off. I give this very unusual collaborative album 11 Ratings Units out of 15. It was all over the map, and simultaneously exactly what I expected and nothing what I expected at the same time. That may not make much sense, and that’s fine. It was entertaining and very different from most albums reviewed this year. Diversity keeps things fun, and variety is the spice of life.