Review: Limp Bizkit – "Results May Vary"

Almost three years has gone by and all music fans have heard from limpbizkit was talk: talk about their new guitarist (Mike Smith), talk about album titles, and talk about Fred Durst (limpbizkit Singer) about having crushes with certain females in the music industry. Nearly three years after they released The Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, limpbizkit unleashed their latest album in stores on September 23rd, 20003, Results May Vary. This album by far has been the biggest test the band has faced because they don’t know how music fans will respond to an album that did not include their original guitarist (Wes Borland) and they don’t know how fans will like their new style, appropriately named Results May Vary.

Before I go into the music of the album, let’s discuss some of the background on it. The cover of the CD Case is green and features Fred Durst screaming with the limpbizkit logo and album title on the upper right hand corner. The actual CD itself is white and has red writing on it in the form of a road sign. Once you take the disk out of the case, it shows pills in a bottle, revealing that once you open the CD, you consume what it contains. The new guitarist is Mike Smith from the band “Snot,” and the group has changed the spelling of their name; it is no longer spelled Limp Bizkit, but as one word with all the letters in lower case: limpbizkit.

The lead off track is “Eat You Alive,” which is a song about how badly a man wants to get with a chick (maybe for the wrong reasons) who doesn’t like him, but the man still has eyes for her. The song contains mostly heavy riffs, singing, and screaming, which hasn’t been typical for the band, which usually has mellower sounds and rapping. The video features the band performing in almost utter darkness. There is a lady who is tied up to a chair while Fred Durst yells the lyrics to her in his megaphone. It is an interesting video, to say the least.

The next single on the way is a cover of The Who’s, “Behind Blue Eyes.” In my opinion, it sounds similar to The Who’s version, but with a more modern sound, one that limpbizkit pulls off.

One of the catchiest tunes on the album is “Red Light-Green Light” by limpbizkit and Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg stepped into the studio with Fred Durst and they were freestyling the song. Snoop didn’t even have to write his lyrics on paper; he constructed his rap in his head. The hook is what I enjoy. As Fred and Snoop trade off rapping, “Red Light-Green Light, Red Light-Green Light, Red Light-Green Light, Red Light-Green Light, Red Light-Green Light, You ready to roll? Tell me when you’re ready to go, Tell me when your ready to roll.” Once this is rapped, it gets stuck in your mind … or mine at least.

There are some other songs I thoroughly enjoy on this album. These happen to be the three harder songs, which involve rapping on the album. “Gimmie a mic,” has hard guitar riffs and screaming in it, which talks about Fred wanting to grab the microphone and lashing out at people who get under his skin. “Phenomenon” is about what people think is about Fred but he says he’s just a phenomenon. Lastly, “Creamer (All Radio is Dead)” has a calm and eerie sound to it and it’s like Fred is talking to a kid he is angry at about his past. It seems that he is mad about how much things have changed and he seems like he is taking his verbal abuse on the kid. With the lyrics like, “So you think that you’re all that and some, I got news for you,” it hints to me that this kid from the past he is talking to could indeed be himself. Fred Durst has said in numerous interviews that he has made peace with himself, so this song could be an example that he knows he has thought highly about himself but is no at peace with his past.

Overall, I had mixed thoughts on this album: my end result had varied. I like parts of the album and I think the writing did better. I feel limpbizkit has evolved, but I did not feel every song on the album. Results May Vary has been the second limpbizkit album that did not go platinum immediately or score number one on the Billboard 200 Chart. The last time this happened was in 1997 when they released their debut album, Three Dollar Bills, Y’all! (The albums scoring #1 and going platinum were their second album, Significant Other and their third album, Chocolate Starfish and Hot Dog Flavored Water). This could be due to the reason of Wes Borland leaving and/or lack of proper advertising, and I say this because I’m a huge limpbizkit fan and I forgot when their album came out (If I don’t know, then who does?). After this extensive review, I give limpbizkit’s Results May Vary 3 Stars.

-To find out more about limpbizkit, go to limpbizkit.com or interscope.com.