Review Summary: Limp Bizkit's second best album, next to Three Dolla Bill Y'all. Better than their later releases, and there are a few good songs, but Durst's vocals are a major problem for Significant Other, and it's probably not worth buying unless you're a fan.
Nu Metal is a pretty dull genre. Whether it's the constant whining of Korn, the samey rapping/screaming combo which is Linkin Park, or Limp Bizkit's very own Fred Durst, there is always a big turn-off for any music fan of any kind. However, all of them can be enjoyable- Even Limp Bizkit, as much as I hate to say it, do have something good about them at times. Fred Durst's ridiculously laughable 'rapping', the hip-hop style drum beats and the catchy riffs which they can come up with are all possible reasons to listen, even though the majority of their work is considered by many to be poor at best.
It's clear from the intro that Limp Bizkit like hype, with a voice stating 'You want the worst? You got the worst- The one, the only... Limp Bizkit' over an annoying synthesizer, leading onto the first 'proper' track on the album,
Just Like This. The hip-hop drumbeat is a nice inclusion, but even with background shouts, Durst's voice manages to ruin it. Luckily, a catchy distorted guitar riff comes in, pretty much drowning out Durst's voice, though the synthesizer keeps it from being great. When the heavier intro section has finished, Durst decides to show us his 'rapping skills'. In fact, his delivery is pretty good, with the occasional sung line, but the lyrics really don't work. He can't seem to come up with any original rhymes, and even his delivery doesn't hide the weakness of his boasts. The chorus has the intro guitar playing again, which is fine, yet Durst is the weak point again, with quiet, off-key singing and terrible attempts at harmonies.
At this point in the album, (yes, only one song in) I was already thinking about giving up on the review. It's just completely unappealing to have to listen to the album the whole way through to be able to review it. However, the odd bass intro to
Nookie was the savior for me. The guitar riff is catchy here as well, and when it dies down, Durst comes in with another attempt at rapping. His delivery isn't as good as in
Just Like This, but the lyrics are very much improved, probably because he isn't boasting this time around. The pre-chorus is fairly entertaining, with Durst repeating the line 'like a chump', another layer of his voice responding 'hey', the second pre-chorus giving way to an angry, shouted chorus- 'I did it all for the Nookie!' The bridge doesn't live up to the rest of the song unfortunately, as Durst clearly hasn't put his best efforts into singing yet, and his screaming is, quite frankly, awful, but the final chorus and outro make this one of the more enjoyable songs on the album.
The whole album shares most of the same problems, namely Fred Durst's lyrics, Fred Durst's screaming and... oh, Fred Durst's inability to judge when to sing, rap or do some sort of combination of the two.
Break Stuff is loud and noisy, with interesting guitar and bass work, but all hopes of me enjoying it are thrown out the window by, of course, Fred Durst.
I'm Broke has a repetitive yet still enjoyable metal-ish guitar riff, decent drums which are mixed too low, and Durst still failing to do a decent job on the mic.
Nobody Like You basically recycles everything Limp Bizkit have done so far on the album, and so it continues from then on. Yeah, the whole album.
Well, not quite actually. The annoying synthesizers, Durst's voice and sameyness are present throughout the album, but the bass, guitar and drums themselves are quite interesting, and just sometimes, Durst does well. His big problem is lyrics-
N 2 Gether Now could have been good if Method Man had been a bit more dominant and not produced some annoying vice samples for DJ Lethal to use, but Durst's rapping is made to look even worse by Method Man. Shame, because the beat is quite interesting, with good drums and a broken piano-based sample creating a nice atmosphere.
Trust,
Show Me What You Got and
A Lesson Learned are all spoiled by Durst, even though the beats are all pretty good.
As I said, Durst can do well.
No Sex is undoubtedly the oddest Limp Bizkit song ever from Durst's point of view. First of all, it's all sung! Secondly, Durst is complaining about something very unusual for him- A relationship which doesn't feel like a relationship anymore, because 'all that's left is the sex'. The highlight of the song is clearly the chorus, where he sings 'You let me dive right in!' I actually really like this song, as even Durst's screaming is tolerable. However, my favourite song on the album, and possibly my favourite Limp Bizkit song comes much earlier in the album.
Re-Arranged also features Durst singing, but in a style close to rapping, something he should do a lot more rather than full-out rap. The hip-hop drum beat is similar to most of the other ones on the album, but is very well used in this song when the drummer decided not to go for a rock beat, clearly a good move. The song is very nice, with nice sampling, bass and guitar. There is very little distortion in the song, and the verses actually have a proper clean, reverb-laden guitar riff. Durst's singing is actually really good, probably his best vocal performance on the album.
The outro to the album is something I never listen to. The album intro is repeated with different lyrics, followed by a few minutes of silence, and then the band is introduced. There is absolutely no need for it, and it hampers the listening experience quite a lot if you're listening to it as a full album.
Overall,
Signficant Other isn't terrible. It has it's moments, but those are few and far between, the rest of the album being filled up by the band doing a decent job mostly, but being repetitive, completed by Fred Durst's weak vocals, and an odd choice for a guest appearance by Method Man which makes Durst look even weaker as a rapper. Still, it's better than what's to come, but if you want to buy some Limp Bizkit, I would stick with
Three Dolla Bill Y'all and my recommended tracks for this album.
Recommended tracks:
Nookie
Re-Arranged
No Sex
