Hi. It's me again - the enigmatic reviewer with normally poppy taste in music, here to defend the decidedly non-poppy sounds of Beanbag one more time. Anyone remember my review of the band's debut album freesignal? I told everyone that it wasn't your typical preachy Christian rapcore fare, as long as you looked beyond the opening track "Whiplash" (which, with its shouts of "Jesus will never let you go!", is regrettably the band's most easily identifiable song). Beanbag's first album was an exercise in blending dissonance with groove, and force with subtlety. It had a message, but you had to dig for it (beyond the first song). Ultimately, despite my initial disgust with the band's lead single, freesignal became a force to be reckoned with on my list of favorite CDs in the months after I took a chance on it (this was before I was into Napster, mind you). I figured their second album would show artistic growth, and contain more of those brash and subtle elements that blended together so strangely well.

One year later, welladjusted is here, and I'm not sure what to think. My guesses held true - the sound isn't noticeably harder or softer. Groove, dissonance, subtlety, force... these elements are all over the CD. And the message requires even more digging. But something about this album, despite my best efforts to assimilate it into my mental catalog and get the songs to grow on me, just doesn't sit right. I still like it - I still listen, and I still sing along to the precious few words that I can decipher (frustratingly, they didn't include a lyric sheet this time). But at times, it's more like I'm studying it than enjoying it.

Limit of Shunt
You rise and then I can't pretend. Why can't you help me out? I can't stop feeling down.
This is a very promising opening track indeed. I chuckled to myself when I first listened to this one. The way it begins is almost an antithesis to the immediate shouting of the first album - a lonely acoustic guitar strums out a soft but dark pattern, and then things begin to build into a grungier composition. Lead singer Hunz Van Vliet enters in - not rapping or shouting as expected, but singing quite capably. This isn't too much of a surprise - he sang more on the last album than people gave him credit for, but it's interesting to see a band like Beanbag start off with such an atypical, experimental song. The tune to this one is quite compelling - it reminds me of Radiohead with much more edge and emotion. It contains just enough balance between a solid tune and a fair amount of off-key dissonance in the guitars, and it even washes the drums and vocals in some spooky effects near the end. It seems to be a song about the silence of God and the feeling that sin has caused a separation between God and man. What does the title have to do with that? Don&'t ask me. (You'll hear me say that a few more times today.)

Chubb
He tries hard to be noticed when he's traveling town, his stereo's up loud pumping hits to his ego...
This track winds things up - it seems slow at first, sounding like a machine struggling to start up, but suddenly the limp, lifeless beat gives way to a scathing rap verse which seems to tell a story about a stressed-out, burned-out guy who seems to be feeling a lack of meaning in his life, but who is too egotistical to admit it. Perhaps it's another rant on self-abuse, as in their song "Stale" off the last album. It definitely rocks, though the chorus seems like a half-hearted compromise between speaking and singing, and lacks the power contained in the verses. It's a little closer to what listeners are used to hearing from Beanbag - but still a stretch.

Ill Minded
This hunger is inside me, my stomach is in pain, but all the answers in my world could never take away...
This one starts off full-force, keeping a rather jerky tempo throughout. It's a harsh but solid rap/rock tune, which will undoubtedly bring the band comparisons to Rage Against the Machine. The lyrics dwell on the fallacy of trusting other people to provide things that should be provided by God, but I'm fuzzy on the specifics (as I am on pretty much all of these songs). Hunz alternates between speaking and shouting during the verses, and the chorus relies on the creepy vocal harmonizing that accentuated songs like "Desire of the Son of Morning" and "Why?" on the band's last album. I don't really understand why Hunz screams "Silence I want you! Violence I want you!" at the end of the song. It seems a bit much - bringing to mind the things I don't like about Rage.

Slipstream
A falling in of the only love you had tries to steal the things you made from the only love you had in your life...
Seemingly named after its musical framework instead of its lyrical content, this song is a little slower, starting off with a moody, ominous sounding guitar intro, which cuts off abruptly before breaking into a well-sung verse with a good groove factor. The song later brings out harsher elements and more rap. I think it deals with the worry that we can fall out of God's grace if we do something bad enough. All I get from most of these songs is an impression - but still, I'd rather have something to figure out than a blatant message beating me over the head. After quite a few listens, this has emerged as one of the more interesting tracks on the album.

These Stains
I am shame, can I enter? I hold Your name on my placenta...
One of few songs whose subject matter can be determined from its title, and whose title can be heard in its lyrics. It's a very slow, swirly ballad, but not in the traditional sense - it opens up on a light drumming pattern with some gentle guitar and bass licks creating a slow, tense mood, and like a true rock ballad, it builds from there. Unfortunately, Beanbag seems so bent on not relying on a pretty melody that this song is at times a little too non-pretty. Hunz sings softly enough that once again, the lyrics are hard to make out, though the line "Why did I leave you?" manages to stick in my brain. We're dealing pretty heavily with the concept of sin here, aren't we, guys? Things get pretty distorted after a while, though there is a nice semi-melodic break in the middle where Hunz is whispering and the mood is strangely ambient. Some days I like it, some days it's just weird. I suspect most Beanbag fans are gonna get impatient with it.

Army of Me
You're on your own now, we won't save you. Your rescue squad is too exhausted.
WHOOSH! This one kicks in immediately after the final whisper of "These Stains" with a solid groove, complete with some glass-bottle-banging-type sounds accompanying the beat (this track reminds me a lot of "Bite the Hand" from freesignal). I didn't realize until I'd owned the album for a few days that this was a cover of a Bjork song - it's definitely a testament to the band members' eclectic tastes in music. Nothing about this song brings the word "rapcore" to mind, and truth be told, I can't quite come up with a style to describe Beanbag's non-rap stuff. Annoyingly, I can barely hear what Hunz is singing once again at the beginning of this song, but that is soon redeemed by a solid, defiant refrain: "If you complain once more/You'll meet an army of me." What the heck does that mean? I believe the song is about dealing with friends who are overly needy, and just plain being sick of it. The line "Your rescue squad is too exhausted" seem to relate well back to "Ill Minded" in cautioning listeners that too much dependency on other human beings will only bring disappointment. The song finally falls apart, after a few final choruses, in a sudden clatter, as if some large metal objects suddenly hit the floor.

Angst by Numbers
Her whispers are louder than yelling, her whispers are louder than screaming, the answers are just the questions...
An intriguing title indeed, and a fitting one for the most aggressive song on this album. Dissonance is the rule of the day on this one! Once again, I have a hard time picking the meaning out of the song, though it appears to be about a girl who is digging and digging for answers to some very deep questions, but always running away from the answers that she finds. For a song so hard, it's almost a cruel joke that its chorus is so singable. Perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye, but when the song finally disintegrates into a harsh pool of noise, I can't help but be left wanting something a little more straightforward in the hard rock department.

There Is More
In my head, I am dead, baby I've got space connecting the dots of what I've read...
This song delivers that wish. Not that I wish for songs whose meaning is easy to decipher, but once again, we have a song which uses its lyrics to build to its title in the chorus. Predictably, the song seems to rant on about meaningless things, stating that there is more to life. It keeps a solid, raging tempo throughout, and Hunz exudes a heated energy as he urgently shouts the lyrics. While the repeated line "You keep your eyes on people, hah!" is a bit enigmatic (and the whole song is strikingly similar to Rage Against the Machine's hit song "Testify"), the song is surprisingly enjoyable - good headbanging material.

Resistor
I do what I see, I act like I do - tell me, am I so original?
This track attempts to keep some of that hard mentality going (the album doesn't really calm down much in the second half), though due to a bit of a lagging tempo, it doesn't quite leave the ground as easily. It's a bit of a rehash on the usual "Let's rip on the media for poisoning or young minds" type of song - even great Christian bands like PfR have faltered when addressing this topic. I guess they've got to get a clear message to the kids in there somewhere, but after so many repetitions of "You are what you're called to be/Just look up to Him and He will tell it", it becomes a little too obvious, and perhaps even too political (another of my chief complaints against Rage, which I don't think it behooves Beanbag to imitate this much).

Dynamic Lifter
What's up with this picture? I thought we were in this together...
A bit of an enigmatic way to close the album! It's high-energy and it rocks, and it seems to build to some sort of a final burst of energy, much like "Taste Test" did. The verses are wonderfully full-sounding, bringing back the softer, more melodic aspects of Hunz's voice, and throwing in some compelling guitar lines and keyboard tones to add an upbeat sort of tension to the song. It shifts back and forth nicely between the melodic stuff and the rapcore stuff, climaxing in a catchy chorus, once again utilizing those creepy harmonies from some of the other guys in the band. Still not sure what this song means, but I can say it's definitely "dynamic" in its structure. Perhaps the clue lies in the enigmatic chorus: "Wide hope through side issues to portray disarray." There's another smooth whispered bridge, but then, just as Hunz begins screaming the words to this chorus underneath the other guys singing, allowing for a nice final sprint to the finish line, the song begins to fade out all too soon. I mean, what the heck is that? An album this edgy and off-kilter doesn't deserve to be concluded in a typical Nashville fade. Especially not this soon. I like the song, but it's like some radio deejays got a hold of it before it even left the studio. It's not like there wasn't room on the CD.

There's not even a bonus track - which is even more disappointing, after the amusing electronic-flavored remixes that were hidden on the last disc. I guess that's my problem with the whole album. Did Beanbag rush to get this thing out? It sounds so unfinished at times. The packaging increases this worry, due to the lack of lyrics, or much else (though we actually have photos of the band members this time out!) Given all the good stuff I read about this CD before it came out, I was expecting a much stronger artistic statement - something I could walk away from with the concept of the album firmly planted in my noggin. As it is, I love this band, but it seems they're being unpredictable just for the sake of being unpredictable at times. When this album is predictable, it's not generally in the way I want it to be. Would I be happier with a flurry of non-stop yelling and screaming? No. Do I expect a cleaner-produced, smoother textured brand of rap-rock like Linkin Park? That's not Beanbag's thing. Maybe I just expected more. Still, I recommend this album, simply because there are precious few Christian bands out there who can pull off the rap-rock thing with much of any real artistic integrity. Let's just hope they don't go too "Radiohead" on us and completely alienate their fans on the next album.

(UPDATE: There was no next album. The band split up in 2002 after a debilitating car accident. Oh well.)

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Limit of Shunt, Dynamic Lifter, Slipstream, Army of Me
Good: Chubb, Ill Minded
Decent: These Stains, Angst by Numbers, There Is More
Weak: Resistor
Skippable: NONE

Band Members:
Hunz: Lead Vocals
Phil: Drums
Hirvy: Bass
Michael: Guitar

Website: http://www.inpop.com/beanbag

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving