MTV, Significant Other
- Well, alright. We got here a good -- possibly even a great -- rock record. It's been a while since a bunch of white guys playing guitar-based music have put out something this well-realized, this interesting, this melodic, and this near perfect. Jeez, they even got Matt Pinfield riled up into a frothy fit (see slightly embarrassing "hidden" track)…
- Bizkit's debut Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ was a nice piece of work, but you could foresee possible trouble ahead if the band stuck too closely to the manic-rap-verse/screaming-metal-chorus formula. Which they could have, mind you, without doing any damage to their sales. But rather than recording "Counterfeit" parts II, III, and IV, Limp Bizkit instead chose to become a better band.
- Enlisting the help of Scott Weiland (yeah, may seem weird at first, but for as much dopy derivative sh** we've seen Weiland do, you have to admit the guy can sing), frontman Fred Durst pushed himself to expand his vocal range. And the partnership worked: sure, Fred's still doing the high-pitched rap he's known for, but he's also rapping in other, more tempered styles (hello Coolio!), and really singing, like on the low-key, hauntingly pretty "Re-arranged," and on "A Lesson Learned," which sounds like Fred steeped in despair after a very long, dark night. (Weiland, by the way, shows up along with Korn's Jonathan Davis on the album's lovely, tuneful "Nobody Like You.")
- Wes Borland (guitars), Sam Rivers (bass), and John Otto (drums) also undertook a self-improvement project. We saw seeds of serious musical skills on cuts like "Sour" and "Stalemate" on Three Dollar Bill, Yall$, and the guys up and realized that potential on this record. Bash-you-in-the-frontal-lobe guitarwork has its place in this genre, but Borland moves beyond the ham-fisted angry guy with a groove-on aesthetic (hang on -- can we just stop for a second and say, what is UP with those monkey contact lenses?) and gets all good in so many places it's tough to mention them all - but take note of the quiet simplicity of the axe in "Re-arranged" and "Don't Go Off Wandering," a song that also makes admirably subtle use of a string section for grim cinematic sweep rather than melodrama a la every other hard rock outfit that's tried to use strings in the past (Anybody remember "Dream On" with an orchestra?) But before you get all spooked, metalman, don't worry, there's still plenty of pummeling, mosh-pit-worthy riffs on Significant Other too: "Nookie" should do you right, as should "Trust."
- The weak spots, while there aren't many, come when the band tries to get too straight-up hip-hop. The DJ Premier-produced "N 2 Gether Now," featuring Method Man sounding like he had about five minutes to work on this cut, has got some harp loop that works, like, not at all, and the whole thing is really just plain lame and sounds so little like a Limp Bizkit number it feels like the band wasn't even involved in it. "Show Me What You Got" has Fred doing shout-outs to as many cities as he can think of in that "Brooklyn-Queens, what up" kind of way, but it all comes off sounding awkward.
- But these moments are inconsequential when given tracks like "Just Like This," "Nookie," and "9 Teen 90 Nine." Significant Other is a fine album, and these Jacksonville boys should be proud.
- Jennifer Schonborn
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