Review Summary: Life Is Peachy treks through the remarkable(A.D.I.D.A.S, Porno Creep) to the terrible(Kunt) to the straight up silly(Ass Itch).
In 1994, Korn shocked the world with their self-titled masterpiece, combining many styles together, such as hip-hop, pop, metal, and funk into one unique sound, with lyrics that reached out to many post-grunge teens after the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In just two years, Korn would record their sophomore release,
Life Is Peachy in hopes of repeating the success of their nu-metal ushering of their first album. Korn's sophomore release would feature the last of drummer David Silveria's hip-hop esque drumming and the last time that Jonathan Davis would show his vulnerability as a human being before he would do a complete 180 and pretend that he was messed up in more ways than anyone would ever know and would play his own emotions off, posing as a chauvanistic tough guy with no real emotion, running only on "Haterade" and not even knowing what the word happy was, predominantly through Issues and Untouchables.
Life is Peachy continues from right where Korn had left off, but this time around, Korn would bring some new, refreshing, and quite unexpected surprises to the table, such as in the fun and playful A.D.I.D.A.S(All Day I Dream About Sex). While A.D.I.D.A.S might seem just like another sex song from a metal band, truthfully, it's actually far superior to other sex songs that are either too corny or just plain...creepy. Mr. Rogers, personally, was a surprise to me. It starts with Jon singing the theme to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. At first, this sounded like it was going to be Shoots and Ladders Part II, instead this time around, Jon would be singing utopian kid show themes(like Barney). But as soon as Jon goes into the first actual verse of the song, showing that sweet vulnerability yelling out "My childhood is gone because I loved you" and displaying feelings of regret, sorrow, and hatred for ever watching his show. After that song, I needed to take a breath for a minute. I gotta give to Jon, he caught me right off guard with Mr. Rogers.
However, the biggest surprise had to be in the two minute instrumental Porno Creep. At first, the technical effects were quite annoying, until David's drumming came in, followed by an startling bassline from Fieldy. But that's not the main thing that sealed the deal for my interest in this instrumental. While Jon harmonizes through the song at certain points, Munky and Head provide something that no self-righteous elitist would have expected from Korn, and that would be.....a solo. That's right, Munky and Head give a guitar solo and show that they do have soloing abilities and technicality deep inside. However, I'm quite disappointed that they didn't seize that opportunity to further showcase their hidden soloing abilities. Disturbed guitarist Danny Donegan did it in Ten Thousand Fists, so why can't they? Though that last statement doesn't make much sense at first, I'm only using Donegan as an example of seized opportunity that the band let go to complete and utter waste.
Yet while Life Is Peachy has some of its unexpected highlights and improvements from the self titled album, it has some easily revealed downsides and flaws. Let's use Kunt for an example. To be simple and straight to the point, Kunt is something that you would expect a 12 year old wigger would write. Now for more detail pertaining to just why exactly I would say this. First off, Kunt makes absolutely no sense at all, and it doesn't even contain such thing as a subject or main point. Secondly, the song is chock full of slang and curse words, quite possibly using every known curse word in the dictionary. All in all, Kunt is laughable and takes away some of the seriousness of the album. The same can be said for Twist. Twist is nothing more than Jon growling for 50 seconds, then just moaning "Twist" about three or four times. I would overlook this, but it's kinda hard to do that when Korn put it on their greatest hits for some reason that is quite baffling. Why would Korn put this instrumental on their greatest hits? Porno Creep, I could see, but Twist? Aagh....I'm getting off subject, so let's get back into the review.
Not only does Kunt take away the seriousness of the album, guest vocalist Chino Moreno in Wicked, interlude Lowrider and Ass Itch further take away the quality of this album, seeming more aimed at humor than at a serious album. It's just silly to hear Chino Moreno rapping the lyrics to Wicked, and it's laughable to hear the horn solo in Lowrider replaced by Jonathan Davis's bagpipes. This is only a chuckle though, not total "lol'ing", if you will. Ass Itch has relevant lyrics, but to write a song about your ass itching? That, along with the four previously mentioned songs take away the album's core and leave it with mixed feelings about Jon's tough life and humor.
Furthermore, the album can get dull as the first album did just because some tracks presented on L.I.P aren't as interesting as other tracks. Not because Jon's vocals don't work or anything like that, but just because some songs are just simply boring. Swallow and No Place To Hide fall under that category for me. This is only a small distraction though, nothing to be concerned with. Let's not let the fact that there are recycled riffs all around be forgotten. For instance, the main riffs in Chi. Swallow, Lost, Kunt, and No Place To Hide all have the same similarities to Chi's main riffs. Ass Itch's intro is recycled from that of A.D.I.D.A.S. Again, this is only a small distraction, but with a little more importance to it than it would appear.
In short, Life Is Peachy is a solid album with similar effects to the self titled album, but with mixed results. Life Is Peachy treks through the remarkable(A.D.I.D.A.S, Porno Creep) to the terrible(Kunt) to the straight up silly(Ass Itch). Regretably, the silliness would continue in Follow The Leader, such as in All In The Family(Fred Durst explains it all), while Korn would still manage through that to release what could be considered their greatest hit(at least their most well known one anyway), Freak on a Leash. Then the fall, followed by a slow rise, then followed again by a fall of Korn would happen following 1998's Follow The Leader. I would recommend getting this album, the self titled album, and Follow The Leader. As for the rest of Korn's albums, I'll only say this: People have their own opinions.
