I've never been to California; i's always been a morbid curiosity for me to visit a state so disgustingly decadent. The closest association I've ever with (at least the name of) California would be the album titled as such by provocateurs Mr. Bungle. I believe they captured the feeling of eternal escape into modernity while yearning for more ...or something akin to tripping on shrooms at the beach. Or both!
Musically, this album draws so many sources that it may seem jarring at first; it definitely was for me. But if you were already familiar with Mr. Bungle's game, you knew they had a penchant for genre-swapping throughout songs on their first two albums. From funk to metal to jazz to circus marches to dark ambient film soundtracks, it seemed like they never wanted to bore themselves when writing music. And with this album, it's no exception. However, it does seem like they were trying to be thematically cohesive with this one, focusing on the often discussed Californian themes of delusional excess and superficiality.
If anyone's a fan of Spongebob, I think you'd appreciate the first track, "Sweet Charity," as the pedal steel guitar will conjure images of palm trees and sandy beaches. The malicious undertones take over as the music shuffles between cheery, carefree exotica to ominous strings backing the suggestive lyrics "even the bombs and scarecrows will sing..." and "save me, the asylums have opened..." The escape from a hellhole becomes the hellhole itself. Juxtaposition is one of my favorite tools in both literature and music, and this album does both incredibly well.
There are plenty of highlights here, from the bombastic Balinese chant shocking your eardrums on "Goodbye Sober Day" to the flatline ending an apparent suicide note sung in doo-wop style on "Pink Cigarette." Funky sideshow golems meet tap-dancing grey goo demons in these mountains of madness. Throw yourself out of your air-conditioned nightmare onto an operating table, begging to be released from your flesh prison. Seriously, these are all summarized from the songs. Words cannot do this album justice. It has to be heard to be believed!
This is an album that forever changed my way of listening to and creating music: art can be as clean or as filthy as you want it to be. Keep the listener guessing; it may be all the more rewarding in the end.
Fav tracks: Sweet Charity, None of Them Knew They Were Robots, Retrovertigo, The Air-Conditioned-fuck it, the whole album
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