Elevator music? This track is the most meandering, stupid song to ever appear on a Bungle studio album, featuring the weakest lyrics on here by far which hurts to say, because I'm usually very impressed by Trey's music. It's kind of hard to describe what it is, really. Golem II is a Spruance-penned Disco Volante reject which goes on for way too long and does basically nothing lyrically or musically for almost 4 minutes. I just gotta be honest and say I don't really know what they were thinking with these. After the stellar Pink Cigarette comes Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy, Holy Filament, and Vanity Fair. The quality takes a massive dive when we get to the B side. With half of this album, Bungle kind of pulls the rug out from under the fan base and says "here's a few good enough regular songs" which is fine, but the music loses a lot in the process, shedding technicality, horror elements, noise, and other stuff which, for me, made Bungle special. Let me put it in perspective, do you come to a band like Primus wanting to hear a 50s break up ballad? Beach Boys worship? Doo-wop? I think Bungle exists in that same wacky, quirky space of avant-garde music as Primus does, so to hear Bungle limit themselves to songs as tame as Holy Filament and Sweet Charity. I think a lot of it is missing that weirdness and chaos factor which was such a vital part of the Bungle legacy up to this point. Moreover, roughly half of its nearly 45 minute runtime is quite underwhelming. Compared to its predecessors, there's just a lot less of California, as it's 25 minutes shorter than the previous two albums. As I've listened to this album over and over, cracks have appeared. However, I think Mike is so dazzling that people, (especially Patton fans), sometimes don't really see past it. Yes, it's true, the vocals and lyrics on this album are fucking amazing. If you love good singing and art pop, this album has got you covered. He of course still uses his voice in esoteric/unusual ways, but less than before. California is packed to the brim with what amounts to a showcase of so many different styles of singing, it's almost futile to write them all out. There are so many downright gorgeous, beautifully sung vocal lines on this album. I would argue that the members of the band at this point in their career are masters of their respective crafts, not just Patton, but he really is the star of the show here. It's easier to see the greatness of Bungle when it's not under so many layers of Zorn/Zappa style density, but for me, California misses the mark in just a bit too many areas to be considered a perfect album. Mike Patton's tenure in the popular funk metal band Faith No More generated a lot of crossover appeal for Bungle with wider audiences, many of whom latched onto the more streamlined sound of this album, so I would wager that California is seen as so great because general audiences are able to digest it better than the previous two albums. Many also claim it's their best one as well, but I suspect what's really going on is that it's their most accessible release. Bungle's most popular album, it is impossible to deny that.
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