# The Mollusk

The Mollusk is the sixth studio album by American rock band Ween, released by Elektra Records on June 24, 1997. It is a multi-genre concept album with a dark nautical theme, with several songs incorporating elements from psychedelia and/or sea shanties, while also featuring a heavy progressive rock influence. Dean Ween described the album as "the only record that I ever felt really confident about" and "my favorite record we've ever done". Gene Ween has echoed this sentiment, saying: "The Mollusk is probably my favorite, at the end of the day".

## Background

Starting with the release of their 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese, Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo—known by their stage names Gene and Dean Ween, respectively—began to significantly enhance their approach to studio recording. While their earlier albums were almost entirely recorded by Freeman and Melchiondo themselves at their home using a 4-track recorder, Chocolate and Cheese marked the first time the band produced an album in a professional recording studio. It also notably began their transition from a duo to a more traditional band with the addition of drummer Claude Coleman, allowing Freeman and Melchiondo to experiment with a wider range of musical styles than they could with the drum machine they had used on previous releases.
Though Ween's 1996 album 12 Golden Country Greats was their first record to feature a full-fledged band on each track, the songs were recorded with various Nashville session musicians, so it was viewed by the band as more of a spin-off album, in the vein of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, than a true follow-up to Chocolate and Cheese. The Mollusk was the debut album for keyboardist Glenn McClelland, and, with bassist Dave Dreiwitz joining shortly before the album’s release, the band finally evolved into the final five-man incarnation that continues to this day.
The cover art for The Mollusk was created by Storm Thorgerson, the graphic designer who designed many of Pink Floyd's album covers, including The Dark Side of the Moon. Thorgerson liked the album so much that, although he was only hired to do the cover art, he decided to do the related promo and poster art, including all of the initial print ads associated with The Mollusk, for no extra charge.

## Recording

After recording 1994's Chocolate and Cheese in a professional studio, Gene and Dean Ween decided they wanted to return to their early method of recording albums at home. In 1995, they relocated their recording equipment to a rented beach house on the shore of Holgate, New Jersey, and the equipment and some of the early materials for the album were nearly lost when a water pipe burst in the house while it was unoccupied. At this point, the band put this album on hold and made plans to record 1996's 12 Golden Country Greats in Nashville. After recording 12 Golden Country Greats in 1995 and releasing and touring behind it, Ween completed the remaining tracking of The Mollusk at various inland locations. The album was finished in 1996 and released on June 24, 1997.

## Music

AllMusic labelled it as being another "multi-genre extravaganza" like Chocolate and Cheese, in contrast to 12 Golden Country Greats, which focused on a single genre. The album draws from celtic rock, country, cowpunk, electronica, 17th century folk music, jazz, new wave, progressive rock, psychedelia, punk, soft rock, symphonic rock, show tunes and vaudeville. At the time, the album's overall sound was described as "gay sea shanties".
The opening track "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight" incorporates elements from vaudeville and show tunes. In a July 2017 interview for the album's 20th anniversary, Dean Ween said that the music from the song came from an old ballet practice record his sister had. The band recorded the song shortly after meeting Glenn McClelland, and had his two year old son Charlie sing on the song. According to Dean Ween, "everybody sang on the song", and there were 11 other vocal tracks mixed in with Charlie McClelland's voice, which was the most prominent one on the song. The vocal tracks were all at different speeds, which Dean Ween said "[made it sound] really fucked up". Some incorrectly believed that the high pitched vocals were simply achieved through pitch shifting Dean Ween's voice.
"Pink Eye (On My Leg)" is a jazz and psychedelic tinged instrumental which has sound clips of a dog barking. "I'll Be Your Johnny on the Spot" is a fast punk influenced track. The lyrics are about the phrase itself "I'll Be Your Johnny on the Spot", which is used to mean someone you can rely on to pull through for you. It debuted live while the band were on tour for 12 Golden Country Greats, and this early live version had country instrumentation rather than distorted punk instrumentation. "Buckingham Green" incorporates symphonic rock elements, and the song's title may have been a reference to a shopping center called "Buckingham Green", which is located near the band's hometown of New Hope, Pennsylvania. "The Blarney Stone" incorporates sea shanty and celtic rock elements, and like "I'll Be Your Johnny on the Spot", had earlier been performed live with country instrumentation. It is lyrically about a tattoo artist friend of the band named Joe Rose. "Waving My Dick in the Wind" is a country/cowpunk song, and the most country-influenced track on The Mollusk, with the band having originally considered recording it with the Nashville musicians for 12 Golden Country Greats. It has been described as a "leftover country tune". "Cold Blows the Wind" was inspired from an old book of 17th century folk songs that Gene Ween had. "She Wanted to Leave" has been called an homage/parody of the British progressive rock band The Moody Blues.
"It's Gonna Be (Alright)" is a soft rock ballad with subtle electronic elements, and has lyrics inspired by a breakup Gene Ween was going through. When it was written, he was feeling depressed and didn't have his head in the right mindset to make music, so Dean Ween cheered him up by taking him for a night of gambling at Atlantic City. The band ended up winning money while gambling and spent it at a steakhouse. The song has rarely been performed live by the band, only being played a few times on the subsequent tour for The Mollusk.

## Reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| OndaRock | 8.5/10 |
| Pitchfork | 9.7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Sara Scribner of Los Angeles Times described The Mollusk as a "poppier, less fractured album" in 1997. Rob Brunner of Entertainment Weekly gave it a C on June 27, 1997. He considered it a return to the band's previous sound, and critiqued its "juvenility". He said, "after a strange detour with the flippant 12 Golden Country Greats, this alt-rock comedy act returns to past albums’ suburban-stoners-with-a-tape-deck silliness with The Mollusk." In her July 1, 1997 review, Lynn Gellar of Bomb magazine wrote that Ween were equivalent to meeting a man at a party who was "willing to do anything for a laugh." She added that, "the fact that they’re great musicians capable of jumping genres every album is just icing on a sardonic cake."
In 2017, Consequence of Sound included the album on their list of the 50 best albums from 1997. Newsweek named The Mollusk as the 14th best album of 1997.

## Impact

The Mollusk was a direct influence on the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Stephen Hillenburg, the show's creator, contacted the band shortly after the album's release, and he requested a song from them which later became "Loop de Loop". The track "Ocean Man" is played during the end credits of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
Kurt Vile named "Mutilated Lips" his favorite song of all time, and recalled that the album "blew [his] mind" when he listened to it as a teenager.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Gene Ween and Dean Ween.
Notes
* "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight" is a re-working of the 1953 Christmas song, "Are My Ears on Straight?".
* "Cold Blows the Wind" is a reworking of the traditional English folk song "The Unquiet Grave".
* "She Wanted to Leave" ends at 2:25; a slow instrumental reprise of "I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight" accompanied by wind noises plays after 7 seconds of silence.

## The Mollusk Sessions

In 2007, Ween released The Mollusk Sessions, which contains demo versions of the album's tracks as well as some cut tracks. Some of these cut tracks would end up being featured on future albums: Flutes of The Chi would end up on the following record White Pepper, and Did You See Me would later be included on the B-sides compilation Shinola, Vol. 1.

## Personnel
### Ween

* Dean Ween – guitar, vocals, engineering
* Gene Ween – vocals, guitar, mandolin on ‘Ocean Man’, engineering
* Dave Dreiwitz – bass
* Glenn McClelland – keyboards
* Claude Coleman Jr. – drums, percussion, engineering

### Additional musicians

* Mean Ween – bass
* Kirk Miller – sound effects
* Bill Fowler – guitar, bass

### Production

* Juan Garcia – assistant engineering
* Bill McNamera – assistant engineering
* Steve Nebesney – assistant engineering
* Mick Preston – assistant engineering
* Ralph Smith – assistant engineering
* Jim Woolsey – assistant engineering
* Andrew Weiss – production, engineering, mixing
* Peter Curzon – artwork
* Tom Nichols – photography
* Rupert Truman – photography
* Sam Brooks – cover design
* Finlay Cowan – cover design
* Storm Thorgerson – cover design
* Matt Kohut
* Jason Reddy

## Charts

Chart performance for The Mollusk :
| Chart (1997) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 69 |
| US Billboard 200 | 159 |
| US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) | 5 |