OF WHALES AND WOE - LES CLAYPOOL
Les Claypool’s music is like an exercise in frenzied multitasking — myriad notes zing by as if he’s organizing arrangements on the fly. “Of Whales and Woe” travels at that hurried pace, save for the polka-ish interlude “Robot Chicken.” Even though Claypool sings a lament for “Vernon the Company Man” and ends the record with a noir-kissed instrumental (which throws in a ringing telephone and Indian whooping), the album is less avant-garde than his usual ramblings. Taking cues from James Brown, “One Better,” “Phantom Patriot” and “Nothin’ Ventured” are infested with horn blats, xylophone and hard-popping, funky bass. Claypool’s ode to a cornfed sweetheart, “Iowan Gal,” is more of a bass exercise than a complete song, but he makes it a tub-thumpin’ hoedown by rattling off the lyrics auctioneer-style and picking his bass like a four-string banjo. Billboard
