Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water

What a terrible day to have ears.

Hoo boy. Well, guess I'm glad I'm getting this out of the way early???

I've never listened to Limp Bizkit before outside of whatever songs I ended up hearing inadvertently out in the wild, but I've basically made it a point to avoid listening to them like the plague. So while I'm giving this album the best shot, I can't avoid the fact that it's basically impossible to be objective, especially with how this album has basically been built up as a legendarily bad album.

That said, I'll start with the good. The music itself isn't offensive. It ranges from bad in an average way, to fairly solid, backed up with Wes Borland's guitar playing, which is easily the best thing about it. Some really cool sounding guitar parts, particularly in songs like It'll Be OK (probably the best track on the record music wise, very P.O.D. sounding but yeah), with the melodic parts. Boiler sits in the same kinda P.O.D./Tool lane, which is solid.

Otherwise, the music just kinda sits in a fairly repetitive and derivative space. Songs like Rollin' just repeat the same parts over and over again, and its not good. Lots of stuff aping off of bands like Incubus, Tool, and their other contemporaries.

But now for the bad, and what's bad is, yeah, shockingly bad. Firstly, I don't typically remark on this, but my God the artwork and the name of this record. I'd be embarrassed if I ever bought this. But what honestly does this album in is Durst's lyrics and vocals. The lyrics can be embarrassingly bad/cringe at times, and it's not helped by the high pitched, whiney vocals. The terrible interpolation of Nine Inch Nails in the first song proper was not a great introduction to what this album has to offer, and a lot of the lyrics on the first half of this album continue to just be awful. To be honest, second half I stopped paying attention to the lyrics, partly because there's only so much I can take, and partly because the music generally improved and gave me something positive to focus on. Also, what's with that awful sample of The Eagles? I don't even like The Eagles that much, and I'm offended for them.

The whiny/high pitched vocals though are the real killer of this album. You know those memes where someone posts a photo of a celebrity, and then photoshop a short version of them with the caption "Don't talk to me or my son ever again"? Yeah, that meme is Fred Durst on this record. Regular Durst is normal with the harsher, shouted vocals, while high pitched Durst is the tiny Mini-Me. Which is a hilarious image, but for the music itself sucks. Basically, he's trying to sound imposing and angry, but what it ends up accomplishing is him sounding small and whiney. Like if he got into a fight, he'd just end up doing the "I'm just a little guy, it's my birthday" routine, haha.

Lastly, this thing does not need to be an hour and fifteen minutes long. It doesnt *feel* that long, but it would have done the band better to release it as two separate LPs.

So yeah. Hard to be objective with this one, and yeah, it's bad, but with the music being passable to halfway decent, kinda surprised I'll be giving this a 2 instead of a 1. I can imagine a world where if they had a better vocalist/lyricist, they'd actually be a pretty decent band. On the other hand, without Durst's genius ability to brand, most likely wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as they were.

Far from my favourite Nu Metal band, but you can't deny the contribution they had to making metal appeal to the masses. And this album has a lot of the hits. The album cover is absolutely hideous though. One of the worst album covers.

Feeling embarrassed to give this anything higher than a 1, but this is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Woof. Another album I thought nostalgia would buoy up at least a little bit, but no...this was awful.

Lmao this was a wild ride

This is my type of music, but I only ever listen to a few Limp Bizkit songs - I never really got into them

Now I understand why. Every song sounded the same and the album was way too long. A few standout songs here but if you've heard one, then you've heard them all

I've seen reviews where people are getting riled up about the language and lyrics, but I thought it was quite funny. Its a perfect example of the stupid shit we listened to in the 2000s. So its a shame it was so repetitive because I would have scored it higher

Keep rollin rollin rollin rollin

3 ⭐️

…goddammit.

I didn’t hate this as much as I thought I would. It was still pretty bad and I honestly don’t know why it was on this list.

Phew, what can I say? The excessive use of the words fuck and shit suggests a severely disturbed sex life and perhaps an STD. Still, there were a few moments on the album that I liked and reminded me positively of other bands. For the most part, it seemed as if the band was playing at full speed the whole time. The whole thing turned into a single droning mash without any real highlights. I had noticed the cover earlier, but was afraid to take a closer look at it. Now I know I haven't really missed anything. 3/5

Fred Durst is an idiot, but not idiot enough to not listen to this.
I have to admit, this hip-hop/nu metal fusion is actually good, at least melodically. Because yeah, most lyrics are shit.
My Way and Take a Look Around (with the MI riff) are my soft spots.

Fred Durst is lucky that he has such great musicians behind him. The drums are tight, the bass playful and Borland’s guitar playing is quite creative. It ends up making this a somewhat enjoyable listen - I’m more surprised than you are.

But whenever Durst opens his mouth I lose hope. There are times when I amaze myself and actually get the overall idea of Limp Bizkit, like on “Boiler”, but I can’t get over the awfulness of Durst’s vocal, inane humor and his edgy political statements of how everything sucks and should be destroyed - very profound.

There’s a part of me that would like Limp Bizkit were they not Limp Bizkit.

But alas, they are.

Most diabolical Album cover and name but I can’t deny this album FUCKS pretty hard.

Everyone loves to hate limp bizkit, but I grew up with this trash. These are gonna be nostalgia ratings. It hasn’t aged well, feels like Bush-era music, and I wouldn’t like it if I heard it fresh now. For nostalgia alone: 4*, otherwise a 1*.
So edgy, he says fuck so much!
Highlights: my way, rollin, my generation, take a look around

I have a lot of nostalgia for this album and I love it, but it does NOT deserve to be on this list in any capacity haha. Probably the most conflicted I've felt about how to rate something so far.

a few sparks of good music but overall meh
also way too edgy

Just discover that "Hot Dog" has verses stolen from NiN "Closer" and also "Take a look around" has underlying "Mission Impossible" theme; I'm really surprised how these guys didn't suffer consequences as, for example, De La Soul, one of my rap favorites band, whicj were one of the most sued bands for sampling :-(

Unbelivable! And they went to become nu-metal heros?! Wtf... I can listen to My Way, Rollin and such but on a second listening they're not so great anthems, after all. A 2, just for their effort and fame :-/

Come on, it's not THAT bad. It's just not that great either.

Fun album if you like angsty angry music. It reminds me of the rage I had as a teenager. Not so much made for a 40-something though.

Worth it just for Rollin alonge, though My Way and My Generation are lowkey bangers too

I like the quirky start to this on the intro, but jeez... going into Hot Dog makes me feel so embarrassed for them, it's absolutely terrible. I had this album back in the day as an angsty teenager, and even then I was cringing and making fun of that track.

That said, even though this album is completely juvenile, with utterly dreadful lyrics, there's still plenty that I like about it. A lot of the riffs go really hard and you best believe I'm head banging and rollin' along with Fred when that beat drops. Nostalgia plays a part of course, but I think there's still a bunch of songs on here I would enjoy fresh today.

Some of these tracks I would rock out to back in the day down the rock club. 'Take A Look Around' was just about the most aggressive mosh pit I ever saw, even more so than Slipknot. I do like those heavy guitars when they kick in across this album, it's just that there's a lot of juvenile, awful aspects to this too.

It's awful, but it's also a masterpiece of artistic vision. Could have been a 5 if it were like half as long