Primus "They Can't All Be Zingers"- -Album Review

Primus are a band like no other. After forming in the mid-80s in California around the sound of Les Claypool's funk-based and often impressive slap bass playing, they've released seven full-length albums, to mixed critical and fan reactions. A mixture mostly being due to the fact that their sound is hard to pin down and breaks from most easy classifications. They Can't All Be Zingers is a collection of all the singles released across their body of work.

I'll be upfront: I am not a big Primus fan. While I can appreciate the energy of their tunes and the discourteousness of their lyrics, and often am impressed by the strange fusion of funk bass with more conventional alt rock sounds, I've never really gotten full pleasure from their aesthetic. Possibly, it's because I've never owned a Primus album and never listened -- straight through or otherwise -- to any of their records. All I've heard are those singles -- "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" and "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver" being most prominent -- that were spun endlessly on the popular music radio stations of my teenage years. While I enjoyed those tracks on the surface, they never inspired me to engage more deeply in Primus's music. And so I am not the most qualified to review They Can't All be Zingers, their singles retrospective album.

But, I'll say this: They Can't All be Zingers offers those Primus tracks that are most well-known and have been the best best sellers over the years. If anything, this collection encapsulates the Primus that the general music audience knows. For the casual Primus fan -- he who loved their tunes when they came across the dial but never cared to buy the records -- this is for you. For the die-hard Primus fan who owns all their albums, well, you must already have all these songs (though you surely don't have this product: wrapped, impressively, like a package of processed cheese). This may be a perfect collection for the Primus fan trying to woo a nonbeliever into the fold. Or, for an older fan trying to produce a new generation.

Otherwise, it's a pretty standard singles collection. I'll leave it to the true Primus fans out there to bicker about whether or not the right songs were included on the disc.