California - Mr. Bungle > Reviews > Strange, very strange, but curiously good

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Different
Disadvantages:	Weird

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Mr. Bungle is one of the two bands formed by Faith No More's Mike Patton in his spare time. The first time I heard this I had the same reaction as most sane people - "Er, what the hell is this, 'cos it's very weird". It was introduced to me by a Patton fan, and I was very dubious for a while but I have to admit that it has grown on me quite a lot.

California is the third album from Mr. Bungle, after their self-titled album and Disco Volante. It’s probably the most normal of the three, but quite frankly, by Bungle standards, very very weird is as close to normal as we’re going to get. It's hard to place Bungle in a genre really, it's a sound all of it's own - the stop/start structure of most of the songs is a Bungle trademark. The best tracks are 'Sweet Charity', the truly insane 'Goodbye Sober Day' and the really quite normal 'Retrovertigo'. The song feature a combination of complex guitar riffs and drum sequences, as well as a good amount of vocal jiggerypokery in there too.

The album as a whole is very good - it flows from song to song well, and starts and ends with some of the best tracks as all good albums should (Track 1 - Sweet Charity, Last Track - Goodbye Sober Day). I could say that the lyrics are innovative - but that’d be an understatement! The lyrics range from clever combinations of ideas to arabic and new words such as Chak! in Goodbye Sober Day.

This is a truly novel album, and unlike anything I have ever heard before. That said, this is what makes it stand out from the crowd and lends it an air of superiority because of this. A different, if not excellent album - recommended.