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Limpbizkit "Results May Vary" Flip/Interscope Records 2003 We're going to give this album a neutral/pass rating. "Red Light Green Light" features Snoop Dog singing with Limpbizkit and uses the words "nigger" and "bitches." It seems to be about sexual consent and Limp Bizkit doing a little bragging. "The Only One" is about slowing down the pace of sexual activity in dating. "I'm up for something that lasts/ i ain't looking to screw on the first night." Other songs such as "eat you alive" are more standard male outlook on romance culture stuff. Limpbizkit continues the same idea in "Lonely World," which also criticizes high school bullies. "Creamer" continues on the subject of violence, but it has more ambiguous meaning. "Head for the barricade" has obvious interest for MIM and includes a mention of the massacre of high school students at Columbine. It's also about getting straight on the relationship to the gun. Still it's not enough to say there is real political substance to this album. The upside is that Limpbizkit is anti-bully and talking about lasting romantic relationships. Bourgeois political cartoonist Doonesbury has criticized bands like Limpbizkit for self-promotion. "Gimme the mic" is standard self-assertiveness for bands these days: "give me a mic y'all. . . i'm out of sight y'all." Musically these are well-polished rappers with a big mixture of influences. There is psychedelic airiness to "underneath the gun"; the album also borrows a sound from Steve Miller and a couple songs such as "down another day" sound a lot like Duran Duran. There is also the mandatory acoustic bit. This current reviewer cannot help comparing the band with Rage against the Machine which also has some rap & funk things going on. While Limpbizkit ranges into this and that, Rage against the Machine presented a more narrow but directed range of sounds. It seems to this reviewer pretty typical that bands with more diffuse musical influences also have a more diffuse message. The musician may be seeking universality by displaying various influences. In Limpbizkit we can see almost everything there is in contemporary Amerikan popular music. It's democratic and liberal to reflect what exists, but radicals tend to lead in certain directions and not just reflect what exists in order to acknowledge diverse realities. The radical bands seem to have a more disciplined sound and set of influences. As a general statement, what I say would be hard to prove, but I would say it's easier to create a radical music within one genre and when bands drift into areas they are not "native" to, political compromise tends to happen. There are endless complaints among Amerikans about punk bands that go into nu metal and grunge bands that take up acoustic. Bob Marley delivered in reggae, but when the Police displayed slight reggae influence it was more as an acknowledgement. Musicians tend not to want to appear narrow, but it seems hard for bands to deliver the same message with the same force in all types of music. MIM tends to favor the music that is more into leadership going forward and less into saluting others. Philosophically, this is the same question as "one divides into two." There is the question of unity and also struggle. Uniting with music as it exists right now tends to end up in Liberalism. Such an approach is good for monopoly music companies that want to sell musicians' music from a variety of genres and it's also good for promoters such as radio disc jockeys. Into this mix, the MIM reviewer's job is to bring struggle and winnow out the field.
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