Review Summary: Good, but not enough new material or length to warrant buying.
By titling the album "Alienating Our Audience," Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI) couldn't have been farther from the truth. This album encapsulates exactly why they stick out like a sore thumb among a genre of many bland boring copy-cats. Their live set kicks ass. Wouldn't recommend buying this unless you are a huge fan, though.
From the intro into the album
Tornado you can tell that this is going to be an interesting ride when you hear Little Jimmy Urine telling the audience,
"Yeah shut up, you wanna wait outside? Overnight again? Then shut the *** up! THEN SHUT THE *** UP! . Silly, childish antics that you can't help but grin sheepishly while listening to it, and that is just by his voice. That man sure has some stage presence. Almost each song has some sort of opener or closer in which he says some sort of comment like the aforementioned one. (Another personal highlight for me is the closing to
Two Hookers in which in says,
"Everybody whose famous, sucked a dick to get where they are today. Only difference between us and them? We swallowed it.") If said acts seem like an instant turn-off, then you probably will not enjoy this too terribly much. If this is something that you could laugh at, or even tell to a complete stranger, than you are on a similar wavelength.
For those who don't know MSI have many differing subjects for each of their songs. They range from silly religious antics of gangsta rappers (
Thank God) to seeing life through the eyes of a pedophile (
Panty Shot). It might not exactly be Shakespearean prose, but a great alternative from the average guy-misses-girl song styling seemingly forced down our throats nowadays.
The music is damn catchy, as well. There are many rhythm and tempo changes with each song. A good example is probably
Two Hookers in which the song has two mini interludes that make up the bridge. It might not seem that neat but when this is placed under the context that this song is only roughly two and a half minutes, it is quite the feat. The musicality placed behind the instruments is not really any spectacle within itself, it just suits the music really well. The beats are programmed to near perfection. You will definitely be grooving to the music, but there probably won't a moment in listening to where you find yourself wanting to really play along with the instruments, yet that isn't really noticed, as you are probably finding yourself singing.
Little Jimmy Urine has a very interesting pull in MSI. The lyrics are pseudo-taboo, but you just can't help but sing along. (I can’t say that it's fully taboo, because in this millennium, all hell has to break loose before you shock this jaded society) His voice is also really really good. The last few seconds of
Tornado he hits these impossibly high notes with sniper-like accuracy. It is somewhat shocking to listen to the first time. Each song sounds like it could have came straight off the album. Hell, some songs even sound
better than their recording,
The glaring flaw of this album is the time it takes to get through the album. Clocking in at roughly 20 minutes this album is too short. When this album is over, it just leaves you wanting more. Now I personally haven't been to a MSI concert, but if it lasted only 20 minutes I would probably be pretty pissed off. I would probably go so far as to pee on MSI as opposed to vise-versa. No, wait, they would probably enjoy that.
In all seriousness, it is a great album, just ludicrously short. This is probably kept best as a fan purchase (to complete a collection and whatnot). The few songs that aren't featured in their other LP's are definitely worth a download though. Actually if you are going to download it get the whole album. Just don't spend hard earned money on this that could be spent on FGWSSS or a charity. (Gotta help them homeless people sometimes, but FGWSSS comes first)
