Limp Bizkit: Results May Vary : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On Limp Bizkit's fourth studio album, Fred Durst is the latest in a series of megasuccessful pop stars to beat you over the head with his pain; he even covers the Who's tears-of-a-clown classic "Behind Blue Eyes." You gotta wonder if the hardship of losing your lead guitarist warrants rote attempts at pathos such as "[High school] was like prison with bullies always putting me down/Just a little skater boy they could pick on/I learned to forgive 'em, now I got the balls they can lick on."

Still, fragile Fred somehow gets away with it. Durst and his mates -- including new guitarist Mike Smith -- use mook melancholy as the inspiration for a dark, streamlined attack. With the Bizkit's usual guitar-heavy thrash still in place, songs such as "Creamer (Radio Is Dead)" and "Lonely World" get by on Linkin Park-style electronic textures, stutter-step rhythms and catchy, cathartic choruses. Durst still raps like a linebacker, but he also hasn't lost his knack for hard, heavy hooks -- and you don't have to feel his pain to get off on his new sound.