Mindless Self Indulgence’s Let’s Get Pink
Synth-punk gangsters Mindless Self Indulgence have dropped a new EP and it’s called Pink. Comprised of “Lost Tracks” from between 1990 and 1997 including covers of both Duran Duran’s Girls on Film and Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, Pink is what Mindless was going to be before it became what it is. The whole thing was produced in the last year or so, all by MSI’s front-man Jimmy Urine.
Since these songs were written and originally recorded, Jimmy’s been through five Mindless albums, two albums with his side project The Left Rights, a video game soundtrack, and thousands of days on the stage. He’s grown up, and the best piece of evidence for this growth is this album’s version of Bed of Roses.
Bed of Roses is a classic track as far as fans of the band are concerned, coming off of Jimmy Urine’s 1995 EP that the band takes their name from. Bed of Roses was the only track that sounded anything like what Mindless was going to become, and listening to it yesterday it didn’t sound bad.
Listening to it today, it sounds terrible. It’s noisy, the mixing is poorly done, and the tracks are so fuzzy you can’t tell what’s synth, what’s guitar, and what’s drum-machine. In the mix off of Pink, you have real drums, new guitar tracks, and new mixing. The track volumes are appropriate, the lyrics can be heard over the instrumental, and if something sounds fuzzy it’s because it’s supposed to.
I rate Pink an 8.5/10
I had my friend Carson, a guitar player, listen to a few tracks and give his thoughts.
(Be Like Superman) “I’d like this if I was in a club. Who is this?” “It’s too much energy for me. I think it could, like, get you going though. It reminds me of, like, older EDM.”
(Bed of Roses) “I like this song. The (more electro-techno-aspects) kinda ruin it for me, though. Yeah.”
(Personal Jesus) “Ehh, it’s not my thing. I don’t like the punk-rock voice, I hate it. The whole, like, young man that this voice—there’s a lot of people with the same style, like Green Day, and I think there are some great songs with it, but, to be honest it’s just not my thing. Like, I think Tyler Bates does it really well, but it’s not my thing. I dunno.”
Carson’s rating: 5/10
“I half liked it.”
Next to bat was Alphonse, a cross-country runner.
(On Personal Jesus) “It sounds like one of those Saturday Morning Cartoon theme-songs, like… Power Rangers!”
(On Bed of Roses) “I don’t know what I think. I don’t usually listen to this kind of music. At the beginning I thought it was gonna make me think, but then it turned into a punk-rock thing.”
(On Be Like Superman) “Very inspirational. Makes me wanna be a boss.”
Alphonse’s rating: 4/10
“If I were making an action movie or something like that I’d probably use this music, but it’s not something I’d listen to.”
If you don’t like Mindless Self Indulgence, and you don’t care about music production, you won’t like Pink. If you do? What are you doing reading this? Pink just came out, and it’s right up your alley.
Cameron Chamberlain is the mind behind Clubbed to Death with Dr. Dandy, Midnight to 2 AM Tuesday Mornings on WMXM 88.9
