Mindless Self Indulgence is definitely an acquired taste. If it’s a taste you’ve acquired, though, then their latest magnificent masterpiece How I Learned To Stop Giving A Shit And Love Mindless Self Indulgence is going to suit you just fine. On the Kickstarter funded fifth album (Although holding an album hostage until they get funds might not be why KS was started…) MSI is back to their old tricks once again with even sleeker production and even nastier content.
How can you not love an album that begins with the line “Son of a Bitch!” and continues with lines like “God likes me/I am the best/ Fuck everybody else/Suck on my dick!” within its’ first eighteen SECONDS (“Witness”)???? Follow that with “Fuck Machine” and you have some definitive radio gold. One thing that stands out right away on How I Learned… is that the sing-a-longs have gotten infinitely more huge. On “It Gets Worse”, the drum ‘n’ bass first taste of the album, it was easy to hear that while the MSI melee of sound remained, their choruses especially were ever expanding. Get used to hearing chants of “It Doesn’t Get Better”, “You’re Gonna Die Alone”, or “Oo, Oo, Oo, Shit yeah!” after this one, folks, and that’s just one of the nicer songs on here .
I’ve been listening to MSI on and off for over a decade now and I still don’t know how to describe them. Gangsta industrial? Hip-hop? Metal? One thing’s for sure with MSI: expect the unexpected. How I Learned… doesn’t stray too far from the MSI mold when all is said and done which is fine. Jimmy Urine is still a peculiar yet adept wordsmith, Steve Righ?’s riffs are still the backbone and Lyn-Z and Kitty are still laying the foundation. Let’s put it this way: if you didn’t like MSI before then this one ain’t gonna change your mind.
If you paid MSI through Kickstarter then you’ve already heard the incredible case of How I Learned To Stop… over and over again. For the rest of the masses, May 14th through Metropolis Records. Buy a copy here or through Itunes.
Grade: B