Though Ween have mostly considered to be this joke band who don’t take their music seriously because of the humour they incorporate into their material (which they’re not and they do), there has always been a song on each of their albums (except La Cucaracha probably) that can unexpectedly surprise you with its sincerity. There are a couple I can think of when it comes to The Mollusk; ‘It’s Gonna Be (Alright)’ is one of them.
This track has always been one of my favourites from the album since I heard it back in 2013. Following ‘The Blarney Stone’, an explicit number in the form of a sea shanty, ‘Alright’ slows things right down to darken the mood with its wavey guitar arpeggios and echoing percussion. It’s another devastating track in Ween’s discography concerning the end of a relationship. For anyone who doesn’t know, Gene Ween – lead singer and co-songwriter in the band – has a big heart; when it gets broken he can get really sad. He wrote songs like ‘Birthday Boy’, ‘Baby Bitch’, and ‘I Don’t Want It’ detailing some of the misery he’s been through. However, ‘Alright’ is one of those tracks where although the relationship is no more, there’s still hope that things can still be good between the two of them.
Things get weird again as they follow this with ‘The Golden Eel’ on the album, pretty much about what it says in the title, so it’s almost like the band just drops this serious track to just say ‘everything’s not as well as it seems here but forget about it here’s the silly stuff again’. But that’s all what adds to the charm… of Ween.