Les Claypool: Live Frogs: Set 2 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Whether it's with Primus, Sausage, or the Holy Mackerel, singer and slap-happy bassist Les Claypool has always had a slightly skewed musical view. And yet, this disc -- which finds his latest solo band playing Pink Floyd's Animals album from start to finish -- is curiously linear. Granted, there isn't much you could do with the acoustic bon mots that bookend the original but it isn't until the "Sheep," the fourth of five tunes that Claypool and crew really veer off from the original -- and even then it's only in the addition of sax and the improvs of their solos. In fact, "Dogs" sounds so much like the original, save for Claypool's nasally vocals, that you might think it was recorded during a Floyd show when their inflatable pig sprung a helium leak. Which makes this more for Primus purists and Claypool cultists than anyone who just "likes" Les.

PAUL SEMEL
(July 23, 2001)