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Limp Bizkit without jam
By Matthew L. Green
Summer Forty-Niner
Limp Bizkit second
album, "Significant Other," delivers a battalion of bumbling tracks despite
the power and originality of its radio hit "Nookie."
In the hit song,
a slow hip-hop beat and edgy guitar rhythm soothe the listeners’ nerves
while the lyrics hit them with confusion and frustration as the singer,
Fred Durst, describes how his ex-girlfriend betrayed him. After an emotional
outpour, the song then turboboosts the tempo with loud guitar rumblings
and furious lyrics.
Building a new musical
genre, other bands, such as Kid Rock and Korn, also have whipped up hits
by mixing hip-hop beats and the aggressive vocals and guitar scheme of
heavy metal.
"Nookie’s" instrumentation
and vocals all harmoniously mesh into a pleasurable stylistic hybrid. And
its rollercoaster rhythm of slow to fast packs the song with emotion.
Unfortunately, the
album’s other songs stumble at intertwining these elements.
Rap artist Method
Man swipes the mic on "N 2 Gether Now" and delivers some catchy lyrics
despite a repetitive beat and no harmony between the vocals and instruments.
But, sure enough, a background vocalist kills the savory lyrics by annoyingly
repeating, "Shut the f--- up." Ironically, the listener should be saying
that to these musicians.
Similarly, "Nobody
Like You," a mix of grunge with Korn-like vocals, and "Don’t Go off Wandering"
both fail. Unlike "Nookie," the songs lack the emotion bridging the fast
and slow sections.
"Show Me What You
Got" shows what the band lacked — an idea for a better song. The song disjointedly
slings together blips of calm hip-hop beats and an aggressive chorus. The
singer first creates a friendly atmosphere with shoutouts to the cities
the band has toured and then, for no apparent reason, starts cursing and
screaming to a heavy metal rhythm.
But even worse,
many songs simply waste time. In "A Lesson Learned," the singer lets out
slow dreary, electronically altered vocals similar to those of 311, a hip-hop-reggae
band. At many points, the song starts to fade as if it were ending, but
it does not.
But listeners have
got to have faith.
"Break Stuff" successfully
delivers the lyricism and aggression of grind core, a style of heavy metal
louder and faster than original bands of the style. "Give me something
to break ... how about your face," the lead singer belts out.
And "I’m Broke"
expresses the soothing melancholy of Suicidal Tendencies’ "How Can I Laugh
Tomorrow if I Can’t Even Smile Tomorrow" while packing well-arranged aggressive
beats.
"Trust," which embodies
the album’s theme of betrayal, pounds out grind-core vocals and a rapid-fire
beat, as well as some tasty lyrics such as"Never gonna trust anyone, and
that’s the way it’s gonna be."
But listening to
the whole album is a chore.
The last track,
"Outro," is like the first, "Intro" — both annoy the listener. In the last
and the first, the band brags about how great and tough it is. Then in
the last track the singer mockingly tells the listeners how their $15 went
"right out the window" by buying the album. That warning should be heeded.
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