Limp Bizkit

It took a long, long time for Limp Bizkit to get their follow-up to Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water into the stores. First, guitarist Wes Borland, generally regarded as the band's musical force, up and left the band, and it took a long, long time to find a replacement guitarist. After a national talent search performed at Guitar Center stores, where candidates had to sign contracts that gave up their rights to anything original they played at their audition, Limp Bizkit settled on former Snot guitarist Mike Smith and recorded an album. Then scrapped it. Then they recorded another album. Then scrapped it. They were going through album titles, too -- it was called Bipolar and then, charmingly, Panty Sniffer. Finally, all the sessions and the turmoil were whittled down into one very long album called Results May Vary. Without Borland on the album, Limp Bizkit turns to frontman Fred Durst, who already dominated the band's personality and now must provide direction in addition to bravado. Durst doesn't come up with any new musical ideas, apart from slight hints of Staind and emo on the ballads, and he generally runs amuck, spewing bile at targets including Britney Spears, ranting about how she broke his heart. He complains about being picked on in high school and about radio and MTV playing the same old bands, and invokes icons like Kurt Cobain. Results May Vary would have been improved if the music had a fraction of Durst's anger (no matter how misguided it is) or had energy to match the clown jumping up and down and screaming in front. [Results May Vary was also released in a limited-edition set with a bonus DVD containing 35 edited minutes from the Bizkit's forthcoming home video, Poop. In effect, it's a sneak preview for something that the die-hard fans are going to buy anyway, so while it's nice for them to see it now, it'll be redundant when it comes out on video -- especially since the footage is just a lot of backstage horseplay, including lots of wearing of funny wigs.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide