Right about now the last thing I want to think about is Limp Bizkit. The Florida nu-metal band hardly ever enters my mind—except through infrequent memories of middle school, which coincided with the group’s peak in popularity—but I can’t get Limp Bizkit off my brain since Sunday. That’s when I heard “Ready to Go,” the band’s new, six-minute long single that includes a contribution from fallen rap idol and Cash Money labelmate Lil Wayne.
Let’s get this out of the way up front: “Ready to Go” is not good. I’ve heard it enough to figure that out (aka once), and yet I kept listening in profound confusion. The canned pop-metal riffs contradict the manic energy of the keg-standing party-dude ‘tude Limp Bizkit wants to create with the track, which also lacks the kind of awe-striking braggadocios that front man Fred Durst awkwardly raps about in gnarled meathead phrases. “Ready to Go” is a spectacular failure of a song that’s unfortunately more fun to study and observe under a microscope than it is to actually experience. I’ve thought about one particularly bad lyrical non sequitur about pumpkin pie* so much that it’s popped up in my Twitter feed twice since Sunday, and I imagine it’ll wind up there at least once more before the week ends.