''Pure Guava'' is the third studio album and major label debut by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Ween
Ween is an American rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania, formed in 1984 by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene and Dean Ween. Generally categorized as an alternative rock band, the band are ...
, released on November 10, 1992 by
Elektra Records
Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...
.
Background
The album features one of Ween's most well-known songs, "
Push th' Little Daisies". The song was also released as a single on August Records in 1993, including both the album and radio edit versions of the song (the latter replacing the word "shit" with a sample of
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
squealing from "
Alphabet St.
"Alphabet St." is a song from American musician Prince's 1988 album, ''Lovesexy''. It was the first single from that album and the album's only top 10 single, reaching the top 10 in both the UK and US. Initially written as an acoustic blues song, ...
"), as well as the tracks "Ode to Rene", "I Smoke Some Grass (Really Really High)" and "Mango Woman"; "Puerto Rican Power" replaces "I Smoke Some Grass" on some editions.
Many of the songs on this album come from at least two tapes that the band made for friends, including ones titled ''Springtape'' and ''The Caprice Classic Tape'', as stated by
Dean Ween
Michael Melchiondo Jr. (born September 25, 1970), better known by his stage name Dean Ween, is an American guitarist, singer and a founding member of the alternative rock group Ween. He is currently active in the groups Ween, Moistboyz and The ...
on
JJJ radio in 1993.
The song "Big Jilm" was inspired by a car dealer named James A. Lemons, who worked at the dealership owned by Dean Ween's father.
The song "Poop Ship Destroyer" would become a live staple for the band, although the live performances traditionally bear little resemblance to the album version and are instead played as a protracted improvised jam, either to punish or reward an audience.
Reception
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
editor Heather Phares called the album "more polished and concise" than their previous albums ''
The Pod
''The Pod'' is the second studio album by American rock band Ween. It was released on September 20, 1991, by Shimmy-Disc.
Production
The album was recorded from January to October 1990, at the Pod on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylva ...
'' and ''
GodWeenSatan: The Oneness'' and stated that "Considering Elektra released it, it's just as uncompromising as their previous work, but it hints at just how much further they could go with their music."
Bill Wyman in ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave it a B+, noting that it was, "Very, very weird, but I can't stop playing Ween’s Pure Guava."
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was more negative in his ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' consumer guide, finding that the band wrote their "fucked-up" songs "without thinking (and how)". He went on to disparagingly call them "the kind of rec-room gigglefritzes who enjoy a good
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
joke when they're sure their audience is sophisticated enough to enjoy it. And to be perfectly honest, I don't hear one of those here."
[
]
Legacy
In 1999, Ned Raggett, writing for the website '' Freaky Trigger'', named ''Pure Guava'' the 53rd best album of the '90s, hailing it as "the greatest 'major label debut after an indie career' record of the decade. Not least because it was recorded in the same exact conditions and from the same exact sessions as most of said earlier indie career, so that means that Ween hit the big time with a record compiled from the outtakes that weren't good enough for their previous album, and it's ''still'' one of the best records ever made." The same year, German magazine '' Spex'' included the album on their list of the 100 best albums of the 20th century. Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...
named it one of his 10 favorite albums of all time (making it one of two Ween albums on the list, the other being ''The Pod
''The Pod'' is the second studio album by American rock band Ween. It was released on September 20, 1991, by Shimmy-Disc.
Production
The album was recorded from January to October 1990, at the Pod on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylva ...
'').
Track listing
All tracks written by Ween, except "Flies on My Dick," by Ween and Guy Heller.
Personnel
Ween
*Dean Ween
Michael Melchiondo Jr. (born September 25, 1970), better known by his stage name Dean Ween, is an American guitarist, singer and a founding member of the alternative rock group Ween. He is currently active in the groups Ween, Moistboyz and The ...
*Gene Ween
Aaron Freeman (born March 17, 1970), better known by his stage name Gene Ween, is an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the experimental alternative rock group Ween. Freeman, along with childhood friend Dean Ween (Mickey Melch ...
Additional musicians
*Mean Ween (Chris Williams) – second vocal on "Little Birdy"
*Guy Heller – vocals on "Flies on My Dick"
*Larry Curtin – backing vocals and whistling solo on "I Saw Gener Cryin' in His Sleep"
*Scott Lowe – second vocal and whistling solo on "Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)"
Technical
*Dean Ween – producer, engineer
*Gene Ween – producer, engineer
* Andrew Weiss – mixing
*Patricia Frey – digital editing
*Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize.
Career
Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...
– mastering
*Tom Nichols – photography
*Reiner Design Consultants – design
*Stephan Said
Stephan Othman Said ( ar, ستيفن سعيد) (born May 30, 1968), aka Stephan Smith, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, writer, and global activist. He hosts ''borderless'', a docuseries about people at the front lines of change, pro ...
– additional instrumentation
Charts
References
{{Authority control
1992 albums
Ween albums
Elektra Records albums
Neo-psychedelia albums