Some albums grow on you. Some never grow on you and you continue hating them forever. Some are generic. Some are boring. Some are energetic. Some are wacky. Some are overrated. Through all of the generic and boring, however, you get the occasional classic album that changes the way you look at music. Music that proves a point. Music that uplifts, tears down, and rebuilds, often within a single song. This is the power of audio. Mr. Bungle’s ‘
California’ is regarded by many as a modern classic. With this in mind, almost everyone who knew of its high stature would go into it with high hopes; very high hopes. Many albums are classics- ‘
California’ is not. In fact, it was a huge disappointment.
At least, that’s what I thought when I first listened to it.
2 months ago . . .
What to expect as I turned this on for the first time… I didn’t know. I had heard these guys compared to
Naked City- were they going to be like them? I knew Mike Patton was their frontman- was this going to be anything like
Fantomas or
Faith No More? Eagerness and excitement flooded through me. I first heard the seagulls of ‘
Sweet Charity’ and thought to myself- okay, an intro. Lulling me into a false sense of security? I could appreciate the soothing island guitars and smooth sound, but I had heard this band was heavy. I wanted heavy. The next track, ‘
None Of Them Knew They Were Robots’ was more up that alley- but still, I couldn’t help feeling underwhelmed… where was the famed heavy-ness of this band I had heard so much about? The next track, ‘
Retrovertigo’ was a… ballad? Okay, enough. I decided to skip right to where I had heard there was death metal- the final track, ‘
Goodbye Sober Day ’. Impatiently, I skipped through the weird bouncy Latin section, the chanting, right to where I heard Mike Patton shouting “Chak, chak, chak, chaka, chaka, chaka...” Then came the death metal part I had heard about. This was better. I liked it. But it was over so fast… After playing that section a few more times, I stopped the track and turned on something else.
3 days later. . .
I was reading Sputnik comments on the album that I had been so disappointed by. One said ‘
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare was perfection’. Intrigued, I listened to it. Not bad. Definitely not perfection though. I ended up getting to the next track
‘
Ars Moriendi’ after the end of ‘
Nightmare’. This was cool. A middle-eastern sounding song with metal riffs behind it. So far, my favourite track off the album. I listened to this track again, and then picked another one at random- ‘
Golem II- The Bionic Vapour Boy’. I loved the music box at the beginning, and the rest of the track was experimentally cool; an interesting almost bouncy-feel to it, with various computer noises and effects here and there. Reminded me of Christmas, or something. I turned on something else for a while, while cycling between one or two tracks from the album.
1 week later. . .
I read another Sputnik comment (I like reading comments- sue me) praising ‘
Goodbye Sober Day’. In the review it said that it was rumoured to have over 40 tracks used to record it all. Realizing that I had skipped through most of it on my initial playthrough, I listened to it again. I appreciated it more. I watched some live videos of Mr. Bungle. Good stuff. Then I listened to the rest of the ‘
California’ album. ‘
The Holy Filament’ featured great violin and piano melodies, and ‘
Vanity Fair’ reminded me of old ‘50s music. It sounded awesome. Suddenly, this album was becoming better and better.
I listened to the opener ‘
Sweet Charity’ again. How could I not have heard before? This is great! Very smooth-sounding, with an island-type vibe to it. ‘
Pink Cigarette’ was decidedly morbid in its lyrics, but featured a cool dark feeling previously unheard on the album. ‘
Retrovertigo’, which I had dismissed as a ballad before, suddenly became one of my favourites from the album. Great climax and Mike Patton’s singing in the choruses is exceptional.
Present Day. . .
Mr. Bungle’s ‘
California’ is an exceptional piece of work. It is so crammed with details, from the artsy and complex ‘
The Holy Filament’ to the wacky ‘
Goodbye Sober Day’, that it never gets boring. Every track has immense replay-ability. There is almost no weak spot on the album. Mr. Bungle’s skill at combining several genres into one song is partly responsible for this great replay value. Every time you listen to the album you will find something you had not noticed before. Not heard this yet? Listen to it. Take the time to digest it fully. This album is a real grower.
5 years later. .
Still listening to ‘
California’; still wondering how many tracks it took to record ‘
Goodbye Sober Day’.
