Soggy Bizkit (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water - Limp Bizkit)

Member Name: Sasuke

Product:	Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water - Limp Bizkit
Date:	17/03/02 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's music I guess

Disadvantages: It is Limp Bizkit, lol

I bought this album during my 'buy a CD no matter who it is, or what it is just for the sake of buying a CD' phase. In other words, I had money in my pocket at the time and it was as if I had just discovered music as I purchased a whole manner of tosh most of which I have yet to listen to twice. Although this album was bought during this period I will say that I have listened to it more than once, sometimes just out of sheer boredom but I listened to it all the same.

If you were expecting me to write a pro or anti- Limp Bizkit opinion here then sadly you are reading the wrong opinion. I will try my best to write un unbiased, objective opinion not necessarily about the band but about the music they made on for this particular album. Fred Durst's band have received a lot of negative hype over the past few years and they say all publicity is good publicity as it was all this negativity that lead me to buying this album, to see for myself. That and the fact it was going cheap at the time! Limp seem to be one of those bands you either love or hate, there doesn't appear to be much middle ground. Perhaps then, I am the exception because they fail to evoke such strong emotions from me. Anyway, enough of my babbling and on to the album itself....

Track 1 if you can even call it a track is merely an intro (imaginatively titled "Intro" ) that comprises of a computer-enhanced voice saying "this is not a test....." for 1 minute and eighteen seconds. In my mind this is hardly creative and merely acts as filler. However, in comparison to the second track "Hotdog" the intro sounds like a John Lennon classic. "Hotdog" you see just seems to be Limp Bizkit trying to enter the Guinness Book of Records for how many times you can say "f*ck" is just under a four minute song. This classy song boasts a chorus that goes something like this... "I wanna f*ck you like an animal, I wanna burn you on the ins
ide, You may think that I'm your perfect drug, But be aware that nothing you do will bring me closer to you." It's songs like these that make me realise why Limp are despised so much by certain music fans.

Track three, "My Generation" is hardly subtle either. Amazingly enough this song somehow got released even though the word "f**k" crops up more times in this chorus than it does in Hotdog's. The following track "Full Nelson" is totally unmemorable to me, literally as I cannot even remember how the songs goes.

Credit where credit is due, as track 5, "My Way" which features a sample from the song "My Melody" is quite catchy and one of the best songs on this album. The next song, "Rollin' (air raid vehicle)" surprisingly got to spend a couple of weeks at the peak of the UK charts. It's quite appealing in it's own way, but I've heard it so many times now than it's attractiveness to me has disintegrated.

Track 7, entitled "Livin' It Up" is alright I guess. However, Durst's lyrics about skate boarding and spray painting do seem rather contrived. I cant help but feel that Durst it trying to convince the whole world that he is still a punk teenager growing up in Florida but by taking one look at him, it is easy to tell that his youth has long since passed him by. Something I think Mr Durst doesn't want to realise. If you can get past the rather silly lyrics about the "Starfish Navigation System" the best part of this song comes at the end. Lol, I don't mean that how it sounds.

"The One" is the title of track 8 and though not a classic by any means this is one of my favourite songs off this album. Of course it of not a ballad (this is Limp Bizkit you know) but it does cover the subject of looking for your "Mrs Right" which to Limp is still a rather untouched upon subject. Free of gra
phic swearing and screaming this tune is much more mellow and dare I say somewhat sensitive?

"Getcha Groove On" featuring an appearance from Xzibit on vocals this is Limp?s way of reminding us that they do still lean towards the "hip hop" flavour, as if we could ever forget. The combination of rock and rap it not always very successful and this track proves it. A totally forgettable song. Next up is the song that I probably bought this album in the first place. "Take A Look Around", a remix of the original Mission Impossible theme tune is the song that launched Limp into worldwide fame. This is my favourite song on the album and while it may not "technically" be great, it has a thumping bass line and is still good to "rock out" to from time to time.

Up next, is "It'll Be Ok". A decent song was a nice sound to it which is sadly ruined to some extent by Durst's tasteless lyrics. All is fine until the pre-chorus when Fred's screams of, "you're f*cking up my whole life" make you remember that this is Limp after all, and "nice" songs are not what they're all about. Would "you're MESSING up my whole life" not have been macho enough? The next song on this album is the recently released "Boiler". While not a bad song it doesn't really offer anything new and I was rather surprised when they released it. I will say that I did not realise until I started writing this opinion that the song is 7 minutes long. It does pass rather quickly.

"Hold On" brings us up to track 13. Featuring and co-written by Scott Weiland this ia another slower, more relaxed tune but not really as memorable as "The One" and "It'll Be Ok". Not bad though. The second version of "Rollin'" entitled the "Urban Assault Vehicle" is the next offering. It features contributions from Redman, Method Ma
n and DMX but still I prefer the other version to this "hip hop" one. Like "Getcha Groove On" this is very unmemorable and just serves to pad out the album in my view.

Finally, the last "song" on the album follows on from the intro and is ingeniously called "Outro"! It basically features Limp have a nearly 10 minute conversation with their boy, actor Ben Stiller. Totally pointless edition to the album with Stiller just stroking Limp's ego by telling them how great they are. A poor ending to the album and something which should have been left off.

All-in-all this album is not great but it?s not really terrible either. It is kind of a thumbs in the middle job. Limp seem to be confused as to what they are. They so desperately want to keep to their Hip Hop roots yet as this album proves their combination of rock and rap is not very successful. They'd be best served choosing a style that suites them and sticking to it. I'm not personally attacking the man here but having Fred Dust as their front man does not really do the band any favours. His lyrics are often stupid and childish, he is not a great rapper, or singer come to that. I can sort of understand how his anti-establishment messages appeal to the younger generation but since puberty has passed me by I do not share their enthusiasm for him.

Another problem Limp have is that so much of their music sounds the same. For instance, "My Generation", "My Way" "Livin' It Up", "Take A Look Around" and "Boiler" all follow the same song structure. You know, a couple of verses of rather controlled music, with the chorus being a bit louder. Than towards the end of the song, the music changes pace and becomes quieter only for Durst to start screaming in your ear again louder than ever around 30 seconds later. It worked on Take A Look Around but it's become an all too familiar pattern now.


Overall Grade: C+

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