Primus: Brown Album (2LP) [INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 2LP set spreads the album across four sides of 180g vinyl. Brown Album reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and gave Primus two singles, "Shake Hands With Beef" and "Over The Falls."

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered

About the album

Most bands chasing a bigger sound book a bigger studio. Primus went the other way: Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde and new drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia set up at Claypool's own Rancho Relaxo in Sebastopol, California, and cut the whole thing on analog tape, producing it themselves.

The result is warm, dry and a touch rustic, with Mantia's looser, funkier drumming pulling the band somewhere new. "Shake Hands With Beef" is a lurching, bass-led stomper, "Over The Falls" rides a rolling groove, and "The Return Of Sathington Willoughby" opens the record like a short story read aloud. "Kalamazoo" and "Golden Boy" keep Claypool's eccentric storytelling front and centre, with LaLonde's guitar squiggling round the edges.

It was Brain's first album with the band, and you can hear a group enjoying the change of scenery. Made at home in Sonoma County wine country, it may be the closest thing to a vintage in the Primus catalogue, though we'd advise against decanting it.

Also at Kops: more Primus on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Interscope / Prawn Song (cat# B0026571-01), a reissue of the 1997 album.