There are many types of music on Brown Album, the sixth full-length effort from Primus: bits of funk, jazz-wonk fusion, country gallops and even a touch of Benny Goodman. But a funny thing happens when these grooves go through the Primusizer: They all wind up sounding the same. They become stomps. Military marches. Lurching cartoon music. Galumphing processionals more notable for their robotic...

Primus's fourth album is, as its title suggests, an amalgam of elements that have no reason to be joined together in a sane universe. The San Francisco trio was once lumped in with the post-Chili Peppers school of punky funkateers, but Primus has always been too restless to content itself with bass-slapping celebrations of male sexuality. Indeed, on Pork Soda, the band invokes the circa '69...