Incubus - Light Grenades

Incubus Official Website

Label :  Sony

Well, Incubus has released a new album, Light Grenades. And I must say, I'm SO not impressed.

I like to think that there are two kinds of albums: one is an album that provides tracks that need no skipping.

We all know what I mean. Then there's an album that, unfortunately has a few great songs, and the rest are bunk.

I think this album is nearing the latter. It's messy. It's half-assed, annoying, and too reminiscent of their older sound. They do a bad job of combining a harsher sound with their soft, mellow feel of Morning View and A Crow Left of the Murder. When I feel myself catching onto a song's melody, I realize it sucks when I listen to it again from the start. When I listen to it, I forget where I am in the song, because its sloppy.

Track-by-track:

1. Quicksand - Explorative, mellow track. Got some syncy stuff, and bleeps and bops. An electronic "Aqueous Transmission", sort of. Not awful. The producing is what makes it sound like…it could be better. No definite complaints.
2. Kiss to Send Us Off - Meh, just a song. Little fast rocki-like, not terrible. Not great.
3. Dig - Weird track. It grew on me after the fourth listen, because it has a catchy melody. Also noticed a Jimi-Hendrix-like lick in the bridge. I have read this will be there second single. Different territory, because this a total love/power ballad, but I must say, they make it work well. They do a good job of combining the album's style of music with the lyrics and intent of the song. I predict this being much bigger than their first single, because this has more of a pop appeal, like "Drive" did similarly.
4. Anna Molly - first single from the album. My first complaint is that if you're going to pronounce the song's title 'Anomaly' in the song, then the title of the song should bloody well be "Anomaly", not "Anna Molly". My second is that it doesn't stand out. I'm beginning to see a trend here.
5. Love Hurts - right, I've totally heard this beginning guitar riff in another song. That's enough to put me off. I have found the song, its "Sleep" from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia by The Dandy Warhols. Blah again.
6. Light Grenades - this is a punk song. Too bad Incubus doesn't make punk music. I'm all for experiments, really. They do this ok. Its just an annoying song. Stop it already.
7. Earth to Bella, Pt. 1 - Starts off with some seriously whiny vocals by Boyd, and then continues with some classy Venetian tones. Then it is interrupted by an annoying guitar riff that is overly distorted. Totally ruins the song.
8. Oil and Water - One of the better tracks on the album. They manage to turn the music into the lyrics quite well on this track. I would consider burning this on a mix CD.
9. Diamonds and Coal - I suppose a recurring theme is comparing minerals and elements. This song absolutely blows. The line "Even diamonds start as coal" rhythms into an annoying one-liner that is repetitive and reminds me of the cheesy love songs you hear at the grocery store, to which I usually scream "Shutupshutupshutup" in my head.
10. Rogues - The beginning to this song sounds like "Spiders" by SOAD. I do enjoy the funky twist they have going on here, though, which it makes it one of the better tracks on the album.
11. Paper Shoes - This track passes by and you don't even notice it.
12. Pendulous Threads - See above.
13. Earth to Bella, Pt. 2 - pretty beginning. Better than Pt. 1, but not great, either.

The problem I have with this album, I've noted by the track-by-track assessment, is that none of the tracks really stand out, except for like two, and that's debatable. Incubus has a reputation for good music, with a different edge but a mass appeal, and they don't answer to either of these here. If this were a debut album, I'd be much more impressed. Don't get me wrong, I support changing your sound; you have that right to that artistic license or whatever. But you have to make it as good as the rest of your releases, or you end up with a review like this one. I don't expect a new album to sound exactly like past releases, I just expect it to sound different but just as good as the past releases. One of the overall things I noticed about the album is that they overdo the guitar distortion to the point of annoyance. This could be a completely personal opinion–if you freaking love distortion this album is for you, but this one makes my head hurt, particularly because they fail so well at making the album GOOD in the process. I am quite disappointed. Overall: 3 out of 5 stars. Average. Not enough stand out musical content, too much filler and exceedingly boring. Sorry, guys. I'm a fan, too.

 Related Links:

Incubus Official Website

Buy This Album 

Related Audio :

Dig

[audio:http://www.lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Incubus%20-%20Light%20Grenades%20-%2003%20-%20Dig.mp3] 

 Anamoly

[audio:http://www./lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Incubus%20-%20Light%20Grenades%20-%2004%20-%20Anna%20Molly.mp3]