The first two times I played LBI, the main thing that I didn't get wasn't so much the production itself, but the long fade-outs on several songs where you just hear the music and beat, but no lyrics ("Art Of War", and in the case of "I Went From", Lynch just keeps repeating the chorus), but after I stopped judging it based on Lynch's past "legit" solo CDs, something happened on the third or fourth listen; for some weird reason it all fell into place, and I like it a lot now!
I don't think that LBI goes far enough to be a classic ("Death Dance" and the "Suicide Note" song on the bonus CD are lyrically too skimpy), but I consider it an excellent, if not perfect, CD once you manage to detect what Lynch is doing. Overall, it works best as a CD that you play at home when it's dark rather than in your ride when the sun's out--which is the way most Lynch stuff works best (for me, anyway).
SOTS is still my favorite Lynch CD overall, but right now, I probably feel LBI a little more than LOADED (which I like, but it's so laid-back that I have to be a certain mood to put it on). Also, it's possible that my LBI assessment could increase in years to come if it ages well, like LOADED has (a lot of people back in '97 thought LOADED was a piece of shit, but now some like it BETTER than SOTS). If you hate LBI now, play it again in another two-to-five years and see how it sounds then. You never know.
But it's all a matter of opinion. One man's treasure may be another man's trash, and vice versa.
PEACE!