One of my favorite albums, not only because it plays to my musical ADD personality in its genre mashing, almost fully orchestrated glory, but because it is so masterfully crafted.  It is one of the few albums I consider perfect.  Those who say it is Mr. Bungle's most "normal" album, is that the same as saying it is not the best?  allmusic says this of the genre:

"Four years after Disco Volante, Mr. Bungle returns with California, which immediately distinguishes itself from its predecessors -- it's probably their most heavily orchestrated record to date and their most melodic overall, as well as the least dependent on rock styles.  That's certainly not to imply that this is a tame or immediately accessible record, nor that Mr. Bungle has suddenly gone sane. There is a stronger lounge-music orientation to the group's trademark rapid-fire genre-hopping; we hear more pop, swing, rockabilly, country & western, bossa nova, Hawaiian and Middle Eastern music, jazz, Zappa-esque doo wop, arty funk, post-rock, space-age pop, spaghetti-Western music, warped circus melodies, and even dramatic pseudo-new age, plus just a smidgen of heavy metal."

Wikipedia classifies Mr. Bungle as experimental rock/ avant-garde metal.  Do you feel these are accurate? 

I have also heard it is the album of theirs that Mike Patton had most of the hand in creating.  He has often stated that his lyrics are chosen for their relevance to the music and not to the content of the song, but then why do they work so well?  For example(I've done the Latin translations to the best of my knowledge [not that I know latin, but from translators and latin-english dictionaries)  please correct me if I'm wrong):

"Retrovertigo"

Before you advertise
All the fame is implied
With no fortune unseen
Sell the rights
To your blight
Time-machine

While I'm dulled by excess
And a cynic at best
My art imitates crime
Paid for by
The allies
So invest

Now I'm finding truth is a ruin
Nauseous end that nobody is pursuing
Staring into glassy eyes
Mesmerized
There's a vintage thirst returning
But I'm sheltered by my channel-surfing
Every famine virtual
Retrovertigo

A tribute to false memories
With conviction
Cheap imitation
Is it fashion or disease?
Post-ironic
Remains a mouth to feed

Sell the rights
To your blight
And you'll eat

Now I'm finding truth is a ruin
Nauseous end that nobody is pursuing
Staring into glassy eyes
Mesmerized
See the vintage robot wearied
Then awakened by revision theories
Every famine virtual
Retrovertigo
 

And 

"None of Them Knew They Were Robots":

Mendel's machines replicate in the night
In the black iron prison of St. Augustine's light
He's paying the bills and they're doing him proud
They can float their burnt offerings on assembler clouds

With omega point in the sight
The new Franklins fly their kites
And the post modern empire is ended tonight

From history
The flood of counterfeits released
The black cloud
Reductionism and the beast
Automatons gather all the pieces
So the world may be increased
In simulation jubilation
For the deceased...

Spray-on clothes and diamond jaws
Wrinkles smoothed by nanoclaws

With my machines I can dispatch you
From this world without a trace
Our nostalgia ghosts are ready to take your place

Content-shifting shopping malls
Gasoline trees and walk-through walls

None of them knew, none of them knew...

I feel the grey goo boiling my blood
As I watch the dead rise up out of the earth
Try to hide from the lies as they all come true

Deus absconditus (hidden, concealed god)
Deus nullus Deus (god not any, no, none god)
Deus nisi deus (godif not, unless, except [after questions and negatives]god)

I feel the grey goo boiling my blood
As the fenris wolf slowly bites through his chain
Try to hide the myth as it becomes a man

None of them knew, none of them knew
they were robots

Buying an X or an O
In state craft tic tac toe
Cats game for Joe Blow

Post industrial bliss
A binary hug or kiss
Can be wrung from utility mist

They stole the great arcanum
The secret fire
Moloch found his gold
For the new empire
Once again
The necrophage becomes saint

Lindy hop around the truth
Jump back wolf pack attack
Swingin' up there in the noose
Slap back white shark attack
Lindy hop around the truth
Jump back wolf pack attack
Swingin' up there in the noose
Slap back white shark attack

Phased array diffraction nets
From full-wall paint-on TV sets
Migratory home sublets
And time shared diamond fiber sets

Recombinant logos keys
Bitic Qabalistic trees

Deus absconditus (hidden, concealed god)
Deus nullus deus (god not any, no, none god)
Deus nisi deus (ifgod not, unless, except [after questions and negatives]god)

I feel the grey goo boiling my blood
As leviathan and his bugs freeze the sea
Try to save the world by immolating myself

From history
The flood of counterfeits released
The black cloud
The resurrection of the deceased
Automatons gather all the pieces
So the world may be increased
In simulation jubilation
For the builders
Of the body of the beast

-------------------------------------

Is there not definitive subject matter within the lyrics?  Why do some say the lyrics do not fit the song?  

Mike Patton has also stated that vocals are often put to use as an instrument, and are used to add to the music, not to make a point.  (I think he was discussing Fantomas in this interview, though...)

 This is my thought, is it possible that the artificial dream of money and fame is keeping the kids from realizing some of the more real aspirations they could make out of their lifes? As example I could say, having a career that passions you, helping your community, become a better individual. There seems to be a concensus in mainstream hip-hop that "making it" is measured by your bank account. Is that the message we want to send to our kids? Do you know any parents out there that tackled the issue with their kids?

 I believe the issue here is not to critizise the music or the genre, I would rather push for a humanistic approach to the development of our youth. I.e. discovering their potential as human being and encouraging this potential the most we can. If X passions a kid(let it be math, geography, art, whatever), I really do not believe that listenning the hip hop is going to erase that passion. However, I am afraid it would stand in front of it and cast a shadow on it.