Mr. Bungle is the debutstudio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on August 13, 1991, through Warner Bros. Records. The album contains many genre shifts which are typical of the band, and helped increase the band's popularity, gaining them a cult following.
Content
The album cover features artwork by Dan Sweetman, originally published in the story, "A Cotton Candy Autopsy" in the DC Comics/Piranha Press imprint title Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children. The album mixes a variety of musical styles, including ska, circus music, heavy metal, free jazz, and funk. AllMusic called it a "dizzying, disconcerting, schizophrenic tour through just about any rock style the group can think of, hopping from genre to genre without any apparent rhyme or reason, and sometimes doing so several times in the same song." The website described Mike Patton's lyrics as "even more bizarrely humorous than those he used in Faith No More", and "also less self-censored". At the time, the band's label Warner promoted the record as being Mike Patton's "seriously weird new project". Quotes from David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet are strewn throughout the album.
Critical reception and legacy
The album received mixed reviews upon release. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a negative review, writing "Adjectives like 'puerile' and 'unlistenable' take on entirely new dimensions when applied to Mr. Bungle". Trouser Press called it "one of the most ambitiously random, fractious records in recent memory" and "one of the finest records of its kind". In 2015, Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer praised the album, stating "I loved their last album, California, but their self-titled debut had the biggest impact on me. There’s a song on there called "Love Is a Fist" that's fucking crushing. That set the tone for us and what we went on to do creatively. They were completely outside the box and just didn't care – they satisfied only themselves. It wasn't about record sales, it was just about creating a band." Mike Portnoy, former drummer of progressive metal bandDream Theater named Mr. Bungle as one of his 10 favorite progressive rock albums of all time, as he wrote "This is one of my top 10 albums of all time, in any genre. It actually scared the shit out of me the first time I heard it. I literally had never heard anything that twisted and evil and joyful. It was just the most bizarre hour I had ever spent listening to music." He also added that "It's a roller coaster sonic experience, and it's full of eclectic, diverse styles. I know every nuance of it inside and out. It's truly one of my desert island discs." Synyster Gates, from the hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold, named the album as "one of the most incredible pieces of music has ever heard in life".
Track listing
All songs written by Mr. Bungle. Actual writers below, according to ASCAP.
