There are signs of increasing maturity on WHITE PEPPER, Ween's eighth studio album, though not enough to back the claim that Gene and Dean are actually going straight. More like they've achieved a sensible grasp on when to court the masses, and when to drop the Boognish gospel upon the faithful.

A handful of tunes signify Ween's most explicit attempts yet to create genuine silly love songs that become radio hits, and get canonized by the straight world. "Even If You Don't" is a Bay City Rollers-type upfront pop-rock ditty, "Stay Forever" is a gorgeous soft-rock charmer full of the melodic and harmonic magic of ELO, while "Falling Out" is prime faux-Merseybeat fashioned from the Beatles' "Little Girl." That the sentiments in each of these songs are direct and decidedly non-toxic intimates that Gene and Dean have been spending more time in love, and less on the Scotchguard bongs. Then again, the metallic bluster of Dean's "Stroker Ace," the quasi-Caribbean shipwreck drug story "Bananas and Blow," and the Steely Dan-like tale of a floozy named "Pandy Fackler," show that they're still comfortable hanging out in the more mucus-infested corners of their imaginations.