Album of the Week

Mindless Self Indulgence: If

As hard as it may be to believe considering what usually gets covered here, I'm actually a pretty big MSI fan. Call it my guilty pleasure; my favourite band might be Pearl Jam and I may gravitate toward more organic rock and metal, but sometimes it's necessary to step outside the comfort zone, so to speak.

Back in 1999, while working in radio, I discovered MSI via "Bitches", which was an absurd attempt by Warner Music to earn the crass, far from mainstream band radio play. Nevertheless, I listened to the track and wasn't all that impressed... until a few days later, when I couldn't get that song out of my head with a crowbar. After picking up the 30 track rapid-fire masterpiece "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy", I found myself oddly enamored with the spastic techno-metal stylings and utter lunacy of Little Jimmy Urine's lyrics and vocal delivery. At the time, I didn't even understand what the hell I was listening to; I just liked it, and that was that.

Their long-awaited follow up, 2005's "You'll Rebel to Anything", found them changing it up a bit; the songs were longer, it was sonically more diverse, and had their inexplicably entertaining cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer". Altogether, though, its ten songs brought the proceedings to a close way too soon (at just over 26 minutes). It hardly seemed worth waiting six years for.

Now, back on a major label (Sony this time), MSI delivers "If", which turns out to be a fair split between the first two records. No one can help but to grow up at least a little over nine years, so "If" doesn't really have anything as amazingly immature and crass as some of "Frankenstein"'s choicest moments (though "On It" and "Issues" come close). Thankfully, MSI recognize that most fans aren't looking for world events, and nothing on "If" is dreary. Big, bad beats are everywhere on this album, from the Timbaland trumping club thumper "Bomb This Track" to the trip-hop freak-out anthem "Revenge". It's more adventurous musically than most DJs ever dream of. The fact that there's a band there to flesh out the sound is gravy.

All this said, it's worth noting that the most notable improvement on "If" is songwriting. The gift for hooks that first got me in 1999 is still ever-present on "If", especially on "Animal"; the track plays like 2-1/2 minutes of nothing but hooks. "Money" is probably the closest thing to a conventional song in the band's catalogue. Then, there's "Mark David Chapman", a song whose conception was remarkable (written with fans using weekly questions on the band's Myspace page). The only thing more remarkable is how it turned out; its scattershot progression recalls Mr. Bungle, except with more samples and synth.

If you're looking for solos and soaring epics, you're shit out of luck. If you're looking for social commentaries and causes to believe in, look somewhere else. "If" is pretty much impossible to categorize with confidence; it's like the audio equivalent of "Tim & Eric Awesome Show", except with more midi sounds. It's like a watching a mash up of "Tron", a Gwen Stefani video, and "Dawn of the Dead". Simply put, it's an awesome example of what happens when a band's focus is placed on having fun instead of having hits.

"If" is in stores Tuesday. This is their website.