If

Album Review

With their 2005 effort You'll Rebel to Anything, the synth-punk explosion known as Mindless Self Indulgence reached maturity. Maybe that's not a word you'd usually apply to these spastic pranksters but when a band goes from simple short punk songs to intricate studio constructions, it's fitting enough. You'll Rebel was just so freaking good it was reissued in an expanded edition just three years later, the same year the brand spanking new — emphasis on "spanking" — If arrived following the same blueprint as its predecessor and coming up short in comparison. When leader and lead singer Jimmy Urine screams "There's nothing you can do that I haven't already done to myself" on the opening "Never Wanted to Dance" he's as believable as ever, and the ridiculously busy, crunchy, and loud backing track is the kind of riveting, kick-ass fist pumper the band has come to master. The brilliant "Lights Out" wedges a stately reading of the band's unofficial motto — "Punch your lights out/Hit the pavement/That's what I call entertainment" — into an otherwise furious hardcore song, and when "Issues" drops "I want a lot of profanity/With a lot less virginity" it's the kind of thing cretin dreams are made of, but the problem with If isn't the highlights. Three years of watching their extremely loyal fan base grow while brokering exclusive deals with the corporate goth retailer Hot Topic has made Urine and his cohorts a little too comfortable. The fact that "Mark David Chapman" was written with the fans' guidance — an innovative and not so great idea made possible by the Internet — ends up a big fat metaphor for how exclusive the album feels, giving the loyal fans what they want and forgetting about any broader communication. Email the band the name of the jock who pushed you over and they'll damn him in a song, or at least that's the way it feels during the rather routine filler. MSI aren't the first band to coast a little and preach to the choir after a knock-out album — and they certainly won't be the last — but the best parts of If cast light on how freakishly wonderful the band can be when trying to shock us all and not just those on their mailing list.