You'll Rebel To Anything (As Long As It's Not Challenging) is technically only the third studio album from the band, coming five years after the masterpiece that is Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy. It represents a much different approach to the band's sound and marks their first attempt at a commercially accepted album. So does that mean they sold out?
While I don't believe the label 'Sold Out' applies here it does take some getting used to the new sound. Their first two albums and EPs where choppy, random, offensive, clever, and yet flowed together perfectly. They managed to blend jungle, hip-hop, metal, and punk with humor to a great effect. It never really seemed like they were trying to sell albums and more just trying to push the envelope and experiment with styles resulting in something completely unique. This album still has all that under the surface and is definitely still unique. This time around it's much more rock focused and more appealing to a broader audience. There's a lot more hooks this time around, each song has a clear structure and usually follows the verse-chorus-verse format. How does it hold up ten years later? Decently, it's probably still the best jumping off point for introducing someone to the band. The opener Shut Me Up was actually the first track I had really heard by them (technically I had heard them before but sort of forgot about them) that made me look into the rest of their songs. Overall I don't see it as interesting as their previous work, although that may be do to how jaded I am at this point, but it's still something unique in the industry and worth checking out.