Search - Mindless Self Indulgence :: You'll Rebel to Anything

Still a step above everyone else

EerieVonEvil | The Rabbit Hole | 04/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Now obviously if you are the type of person who listens to MSI religiously then there is no swaying you from thinking this album is amazing, breath-taking and all the usual hoopla. This review is from a music fan in general. Other than the 50+ minutes of disc space wasted(the album is only 26 mins!), this cd is actually pretty good. We find MSI incorporating more old school video game noises(i.e. Atari, Nintendo). The guitars also sound more organic and not so synthetic...there is actually a crunch to them which is good. Urine's vocal treatment is slightly different than the previous albums; He still has the hyper-falsetto/scat thing going on but with more melody this time. I am skeptical of the Tom Sawyer cover though...I already know Deadsy covered that song on their Commencement album 3 years ago, and MSI aand Deadsy toured extensivley together and I saw them and Deadsy played Tom Sawyer with their live set....maybe MSI thought they could out-do Deadsy's cover? Who knows...anyway the tracks on this album are worth repeated listens, although after a while the same 26 minutes will eventually wear thin so try to listen to other things too so you don't wear this album out any time soon. Highlight tracks are definitley Straight To Video(This song is so new wave its not funny); 1989, and of course Shut Me Up(the lyrics in this song are catchy). MSI haven't lost their chaotic edge at all...I mean come on we've all seen them live and we know they aren't backing down! Bottom line: A good record albeit too short, so it loses a star. I say take all the bonus tracks from the other versions of the album and put them of this explicit version to make a 30+ minute album! Get this if you are at all a Mindless Self Indulgence fan. Nuff said."

Another great album from MSI!

Chris Ochman | Stafford, VA | 04/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is probably the best so far, at least for me. This album absolutely rocks!



A lot of the songs are longer than the normal minute and some odd seconds of song, that we are all used to. Those were good, but now we have songs from MSI, that can go on for 3 minutes! This is the greatest thing ever!



The music is more or less the same, though I find it a teensy bit more tame than the previous albums. The lyrics are still pretty hardcore and the music is still in your face, guitars, screeching and such, but not AS much as in previous albums.



Key trakcs for me are "Bulls***", "Prom", 'Shut Me Up" and "You'll Rebel to Anything".



Great lyrics, great music, and what more could you expect from a great band like MSI?? If you know them you'll know what to expect, just not as much, but still awesome.



For you new people, this is pretty intense stuff.....listen to it first, before you buy it. I find that it's an acquired taste with MSI."

Great album but very poor and underhanded marketing!

Mr. Tangent | Mount Vernon, Missouri United States | 03/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'll break this review in to three parts. First, the review of the album itself. Second, the review of the tactics used by MSI and Metropolis Records to sell this album. Lastly, my advice on getting everything that should have been included on one album.



1. The review of the album:



Simply put, if you like previous MSI albums, Babyland or stuff like Korn you'll eat this up. It's another top notch hybrid electronic, punk/metal, lofi quasi-hip hop, quasi-post-industrial genre-bending album. I suppose this would have fallen in to the label "coldwave" circa mid-90's post-industrial labeling. It's not exactly coldwave, not exactly anything other than the sum of its influences, which seem to be mainly hip-hop, post-industrial and punk/metal. The highlights of the album are definitely "Shut Me Up" and "Stupid MF", although there isn't really a weak track here. Another bonus is a positively weird cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer". Be sure to put the CD in your computer as there is a video for "You'll Rebel To Anything" (it's a neat collage of old 50's propaganda footage mixed with weird cartoons, vintage stock film interspersed with just general weirdness.)



2. Commentary about questionable gouging of consumer by label/band:



There is absolutely no reason for there to be three different versions of this album except to rip off the consumer. Period. In an interview Jimmy Urine said they released a clean version for people who couldn't buy the album in places like Wal-Mart. Who cares about Wal-Mart? For someone so outspoken and inspired by punk, it bothers me that he'd cave to pressures to release an edited version of anything, let alone an entire album. That leads me to believe it wasn't an effort to cater to the imbeciles who buy music at Wal-Mart but rather a flimsy excuse to release a different version of the album, with different artwork and different bonus tracks.



When I used to buy a lot of electro/industrial (circa mid-90's) I remember this type of crap burning the hell out of me. I'd buy the import of a particular artist (say, someone like Haujobb) and then a year or so later a domestic version would come out with bonus tracks. And it'd cost LESS to boot! So all the "early adopters" and people on the cutting edge would get burned over and over. I can't tell you how many CDs I bought like that when I used to buy a lot of obscure electro/industrial music. It's a trick in order to separate you from your money, nothing more. If they cared only about exposing underground music to a new audience then they'd simply license the album and release it exactly as it was originally in Europe. But I digress.



3. My advice:



Buy this explicit version, then download the bonus tracks "La-Di Da-Di" (bonus track on vinyl) and "Mic Commander" (bonus track on clean version) off teh intarweb and say fsck you to Metropolis Records/MSI for forcing us to buy three versions of the same album in order to get two extra tracks, different artwork and a bonus video (the clean version of this album has a "bonus rehearsal video for 'Diabolical'"). Alternately, if you feel like giving MSI more of your hard-earned money, you can at least get the track "Mic Commander" on iTunes Music Store by itself.



In summation, MSI are a great band and if you like punk, electro-industrial, metal with electronic influences (Fear Factory), hip-hop, nu-metal, coldwave/aggro-industrial (Ministry) then you'll probably totally dig this album.



Also, check out Jhonen Vasquez's video for "Shut Me Up" on myspace (or just do a google search for it). The ex-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac/Squee/Invader Zim/etc. mastermind pulls off one of the funniest videos in a long time."