Review Summary: A thirty-odd-minute encapsulation of the best and worst aspects of Limp Bizkit
A sampled voice talks about 'starting today to build a better tomorrow'. An atmospheric, electronic crescendo builds up for a few seconds, only to be cut off by a command to
'KICK IT!', which in turn opens a path for a massive, square, downtuned guitar riff. A few moments later, an imperious, staccato bellow of
'D! J! LE! THAL!' cues in the scratches, throwing even the most begrudging of listeners back to the heady days of the turn of the millennium, and definitively cementing the point that, yes, twenty years after their heyday and a full decade after anyone last heard from them, Limp Bizkit remain essentially the same.
This is particularly commendable given how easy – expectable, even - it would have been for the recently reunited Florida five-piece to emerge from the other side of a decade-long development hell odyssey dazed, confused, and with their fundamental identity shattered. And yet, skate-punk-worthy album and song lengths aside, Bizkit's foray through the
Stampede of the Disco Elephants appears to have had little to no effect on the band's sound or attitude as a whole; if anything, the unusual elements found on the provocatively titled
Still Sucks owe more to the group's trajectory in the immediate aftermath of
Chocolate Starfish – and on their last two records in particular - than to any internal turmoil they may have experienced since the release of
Gold Cobra. Which is to say, this album follows on from the sonic template established on that and its predecessor,
The Unquestionable Truth Pt. I, displaying a more mature and layered side of the band's sound while retaining all of their defining traits, and adding an impactful new element to the mix, namely self-awareness.
In fact, while the band, and Fred Durst in particular, have a (not unwarranted) reputation for taking themselves ridiculously seriously – even within the notoriously dramatic confines of the nu-metal genre – their comeback album finds the frontman and his sidekicks in an unusually truculent mood, perfectly reflected in both the lyricism and
'baby's first Windows Movie Maker' video for advance single
Dad Vibes, which finds Durst acknowledging his age by rapping about how he now gives off said vibes. Nor is the single, by any means, an isolated case in this regard; to the contrary, several moments across these 32 minutes of music find the band poking not-so-gentle fun at themselves, their status within the industry (standout highlight
Snacky Poo) and the opinions of their detractors (
Love the Hate. And the least that can be said is that this new approach does wonders to ingratiate the band with both their once and future fans and the aforementioned detractors – even if the aforementioned
Love the Hate ranks as the absolute nadir of the album.
However, mature and self-aware though they may have become, Limp Bizkit have, as noted above, fundamentally changed very little otherwise, which is to say, all the flaws and shortcoming which the band continually got knocked for during their original run remain very much present and accounted for - so much so, in fact, that
Still Sucks serves as nothing so much as a thirty-odd-minute encapsulation of the best and worst aspects of Limp Bizkit, Durst, in particular, remains a painfully limited performer, forever cruising by on an increasingly risible double-bird attitude and unwittingly dragging his bandmates down with him; similarly, the group's adherence to simplistic songwriting formulas ultimately straitjackets its more talented members, preventing them from veering off into the more technical landscapes they have proven themselves able to inhabit. When coupled with a few debatable stylistic choices (not least of which the decision to keep almost all of these twelve tracks under three minutes), these flaws keep
Still Sucks from fulfilling its potential as the best Limp Bizkit album since their superstardom days.
To its immense credit, however, the album also begs the question of whether any of that truly matters when the listening experience itself is
this much fun. At its best,
Still Sucks almost does enough to justify the removal of the
'guilty' portion from its classification as a
'guilty pleasure', as unabashedly, unironically playlist-worthy cuts such as the first five tracks,
Barnacle or
Snacky Poo, alongside perfectly respectable attempts at diversity such as the
Goodbye or the all-acoustic cover for INXS'
Don't Change, very nearly suceed in making the listener forget they are listening to one of the most famously flawed and universally derided bands in modern rock music; unfortunately, cuts such as the aforementioned
Love the Hate (the sort of childish skit imperial-period Eminem would have scoffed at),
Pill Popper or the aptly-titled
You Bring Out the Worst In Me - each an embarassingly try-hard, utterly cringeworthy attempt to keep up with the hungry new upstarts...of twenty years ago – make a point of reminding listeners of why the authors of
Still Sucks were such a laughing-stock to begin with, almost suceeding in nullifying the good will those early tracks have accrued for Durst and company. And while the aforementioned triptich of
Barnacle, Snacky Poo and
Goodbye eventually run successful damage control, these weaker tracks do ultimately detract from the overall impression of the album, further dragging it away from the top tiers and into the realm of the merely fairly good.
Even still, for a Limp Bizkit album in 2021,
Still Sucks is much, much better than anyone might have expected – and arguably better than it had any right to be. At its best, it is an irrepressible, eminently replayable slab of retro-nostalgic nu-metal from
'a trucker from the sticks' and his fellow
'nu-metal one-hit wonders'; and while it does have considerable, deeply rooted and inescapable flaws (Fred Durst should never again be allowed to scream – or use the expression
'lit banger', for that matter), checks and balances ultimately come out positive (if only just) making this yet another entry into a growing list of respectable comeback albums from veteran artists – and one which, contrary to initial predictions, is plenty good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with any of them.
Recommended Tracks
Dirty Rotten Bizkit
Dad Vibes
Barnacle
Snacky Poo
Goodbye
