Ween: 12 Golden Country Greats : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Over the course of four albums, Dean and Gene Ween have mocked almost as many rock conventions as Spinal Tap did. On 12 Golden Country Greats they focus their sarcasm on Nashville, although the music sounds as much like tribute as it does satire. Ben Vaughn produces an impressive array of Music City session pros – Hargus "Pig" Robbins, Charlie McCoy, one-time Elvis Presley backup singers the Jordanaires, among others – and the tunes (by Ween) are first-rate. But lyrically, Gene and Dean drag the proceedings into the gutter. The duo seems terminally stuck in junior high, and if the scatological humor doesn't turn you off, the misogyny surely will. "Piss up a Rope" laughs about being "up shit creek with a turd for a paddle" before calling for fellatio on demand. Maybe the Weens have been watching too much Beavis and Butt-head. Huh-huh, huh-huh.