Music Review: Incubus’ Light Grenades

Rating: 4/5 stars

Discovering Something Good

I remember that fateful day when I received my first Incubus CD. It was my freshman year of high school, and I was being rewarded for some community service work I had done. Being given the choice of two CDs by bands I didn’t know, I just chose the one with the picture of the ocean on the front. (Let’s just say that at the time, my musical knowledge was pretty much laughable.)

Having never listened to Incubus’ music, I knew absolutely nothing about them. The only thing that I knew was that the cover of their Morning View album was semi-appealing. Then on the ride home, my friend turned to me and said, “I heard that CD is really good.” I just shrugged. Ok, sure.

o now, six years later, I’m here in my room with Incubus playing on repeat. I’m not absolutely fanatical about their music, but I do own all of their CDs upon album release.

The Latest Release

The band’s sixth and latest CD, Light Grenades, came out on November 28th. Like all other Incubus fans, I got it as soon as it came out, eager to hear how different this one would be compared to the others.

One of the best things about this band is that their sound evolves from album to album. Audiences have heard Incubus produce soft songs like “Aqueous Transmission” then come out later with the (comparatively) louder and angrier “Pistola”.

An Acquired Taste

I have to admit, for this newest album, it took me a while to like it as much as I liked the others. I had to play it a few times to really get into the songs – liking some immediately and being undecided on others. But then I thought about it . . . and I decided maybe that’s a good thing. With some artists, you like their music on the first play. It’s almost as if it’s given to you on a platter. But with the ones where it takes you a little longer to like their sound, it makes you like it that much more when that moment comes.

For Light Grenades, you can think of it as a mix of song types from Incubus’ other CDs. You hear about the singer’s image of a perfect girl in the album’s first single, “Anna Molly”. With the song that shares its title with the album, fans hear a loud and fast song where it actually might take some concentration to hear the lyrics from Brandon Boyd’s yelling. Amazingly enough, the song is followed immediately on the CD by part one of an almost-but-not-quite acoustic sounding “Earth to Bella”.

Highlighted Songs

This CD most definitely has some successes, obvious from its currently number one slot on the Billboard Charts. Tracks 5, 8, and 11, among others, seem to be the most “classically” Incubus-styled songs, if there ever was such a thing.

Of their other albums, is Light Grenades my favorite? I’m still on the fence about it. But one thing is for sure. This one is definitely close.

Standout Songs:
Diamonds and Coal
Dig
Rogues

For Touring Information:
www.enjoyincubus.com

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