Houses of the Molé

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Houses of the Molé

Studio album by Ministry
Released	June 21, 2004
Recorded	Sonic Ranch, El Paso, TX
Genre	Industrial Metal
Length	53:58
Label	Sanctuary Records
Producer(s)	Al Jourgensen
All Music Guide (4/5) link
Ministry chronology
Animositisomina (2003)	The Houses of the Molé (2004)	Early Trax (2004)

Houses of the Molé is the ninth studio album by industrial metal band Ministry with all songs starting with the letter "W" except for the first song and one hidden track. The album was released on June 21, 2004 internationally and a day later in the United States through Sanctuary.

Al Jourgensen has stated that the name Houses of the Molé is a tribute to the Houses of the Holy album, released by Led Zeppelin in 1973.

The album Houses of the Molé was released in the run up to the 2004 United States of America presidential elections and it is an intensely political album, with quite a few of its songs highly critical of George W. Bush, president of the United States of America at the time of its release. (One theory behind the "W" naming scheme is that this was inspired by George W Bush's middle initial, W. Some also rumour that it is in relation to an event occurring when Clinton left power, when the US Bureaucrats took the "W" key off all of the keyboards before leaving their posts; a reference to Bush's father George Bush Sr, and therefore creating the name "No 'W'") The first track on the album, "No W", features numerous satirical samples of George W Bush's speeches, particularly sampling speeches in which he spoke of his war on terror. This political stance has divided fans, some of whom themselves voted for George W. Bush, or who at least agree with his views, and believe that Ministry should stay out of politics. They also state that this political stance has taken Ministry's views away from their music, distracting them and preventing them from producing albums of their expected quality. Other fans counter that Ministry has always been quite a political band, who have on numerous occasions in the past made condeming statements regarding the President's father, the war on drugs and the Gulf War. These fans also counter that music, as an expression of an artist's views and feelings, is at times going to be unavoidably political and that condemning an artist's moral stance is akin to censorship.

This was the first and only Ministry studio album to not chart on the Billboard 200. After it's release, Ministry left the label due to this.

"No W" video is available as here or here.

[edit] Track listing

"No W" (Jourgensen) – 3:24
"Waiting" (Jourgensen) – 5:02
"Worthless" (Jourgensen) – 4:09
"Wrong" (Jourgensen) – 4:54
"Warp City" (Jourgensen) – 4:01
"WTV" (Jourgensen) – 4:25
"World" (Jourgensen) – 5:13
"WKYJ" (Jourgensen) – 5:14
"Worm" (Jourgensen) – 9:10

[edit] Hidden Tracks

23. "Psalm 23" (Jourgensen) – 5:41
69. "Walrus" (Jourgensen) – 2:45

"Psalm 23" is an alternate version of "No W" (minus the Carmina Burana samples) preceded by a mysterious rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner (source of the recording unknown). Later versions of Houses of the Molé do not feature the version of "No W" with the Carmina Burana samples. Instead, a version of "Psalm 23" with a shortened intro is included as the first track (and labelled as "No W"). "Psalm 23" is replaced by the track "Bloodlines".