WEEN
White Pepper (reissue)
Rhino
Rel: 11 May 26
Indie/Alternative
| Side 1 - Track 1. Exactly Where I'm At |
| Side 1 - Track 2. Flutes Of Chi |
| Side 1 - Track 3. Even If You Don't |
| Side 1 - Track 4. Bananas & Blow |
| Side 1 - Track 5. Stroker Ace |
| Side 1 - Track 6. Ice Castles |
| Side 2 - Track 1. Back To Basom |
| Side 2 - Track 2. The Grobe |
| Side 2 - Track 3. Pandy Fackler |
| Side 2 - Track 4. Stay Forever |
| Side 2 - Track 5. Falling Out |
| Side 2 - Track 6. She's Your Baby |
Out first in 2000, White Pepper found Pennsylvania's Ween in markedly different spirits from the fraught introspection that would define the Quebec album three years later. Having left Elektra and with a streamlined studio bench, Gene and Dean would access classic pop structure for the first time, lessening the tape-fuzz chaos. Rumour has it, the title is a Beatles nod: 'Exactly Where I'm At' and 'Even If You Don't' wear the harmonic ambition openly, but 'Stay Forever' and 'She's Your Baby' settle down to sincere, disarming romanticism. Even the absurdist streak ('Bananas And Blow') lands breezier than corrosive. Personally, the band were still functioning as a cohesive unit, touring heavily but not yet at the breaking point that would sully the Quebec sessions.