Still, sometimes, Einzinger plays along with the chord pattern and Kilmore. He finds his place at the keyboard, comping chords for the band so Einzinger has more freedom with his guitar. On Light Grenades, Kilmore is almost completely stripped of his DJ-ing duties. The whole feeling of the song, purely happy and blissful rather than a tinge of depressing or sarcastic, comes as a breath of fresh air.ĭig also features Chris Kilmore’s newfound job on the keyboard. The band is no stranger to pop rock, but the mix of Einzinger’s arpeggios and acoustic guitar in the verse is new. However, Incubus reworked the song with a more pop rock sound. Hearing the song in its form now, the R&B version could have been fantastic, as the lyrics and style of the song still hint towards that R&B sound. According to the band, Dig started as a strange R&B song. When the band expands their sound while remaining around their same song structure, it works much better. Unlike most of Incubus’ departures, Earth to Bella plays around with their song structure and it finds the band extremely uncomfortable. Brandon’s vocals on the acoustic section are some of his best on the album, crystal clear as always. While intending to have a great build-up and climax, they fail to impress due to a lack of dynamics and a very awkward build. Part 2 shows the song and album closing much like a live concert, a dense, ambiguous sound with no real melody while Einzinger overdubs his guitar with effects and plays way high on the fretboard. The music jumps from an acoustic ballad to a spaced out, sloppily electric sound reminiscent of an early Muse. Earth to Bella sings to a girl named Bella, obviously, who disagrees with many of Brandon’s ideals. Everywhere else, Brandon returns to his relationship-based lyrics rather than sending out political world messages. The song’s lyrical topic, however, stands out from the rest of the album. His cynical lyrics of “My God, will we survive ourselves?” throw back to his earlier recordings when sarcasm was his main weapon. Light Grenades also sees the return of Brandon Boyd’s sarcastic tone. Incubus obviously made a few compromises with Kenney, making him adapt to some of their style as they enveloped some of his. In fact, he even pushes the song along sometimes.

Ben Kenney manages to keep up this time as well. One of Einzinger’s fastest riffs yet leads the song into a song that possesses some of the best energy from a six album strong band ever. That same guitar tone found on tracks like Megalomaniac returns, except this time with a brand new vengeance. Oddly enough, the title track Light Grenades picks up right where Crow left off. A few years and many live shows and experiences later, the band feels just as together as they were with Dirk Lance. He left their new bassist, Ben Kenney, struggling to catch his breath.

The production style left an ambiguous sound where Mike Einzinger dominated everything. Vocalist Brandon Boyd spoke out on topics further than himself with a brand new seriousness that none of his previous efforts even hinted at. Luckily, that is the only thing Light Grenades and A Crow Left of the Murder share in common.Ī Crow Left of the Murder, the first album after the departure of Dirk Lance, played like a dirty, gritty, and angry album. A Crow Left of the Murder featured many different sounds as well, but the album came off very inconsistent as compared to their other releases. That’s why it is so fitting that Anna Molly is the album’s single, maybe defining the album with the line “It’s time we went and made a mess.” The album ranges from a simple acoustic ballad to a quicksilver, lightning fast punk song with tinges of electronica, pop rock, and many other sounds thrown in between. Einzinger explained his longing to make a cohesive album, but stated this one might be the biggest mess of all. They are just collections of songs recorded in one span of time. Despite that defining sound to each album, none of their albums feel like albums. That might explain Incubus’ evolution, constantly reforming their sound into something new on every album. In the same interview, Einzinger revealed that every member of the band has some form of ADHD. When asked about Incubus’ new album, guitarist Mike Einzinger stated “It sounds like 13 different bands playing 13 different songs.” Well, that’s a slight exaggeration, but he summarizes the album well in that statement. All in all, just another consistent release from Incubus. Review Summary: Incubus creates a paradox with Light Grenades, releasing their most 'album-like' release yet still finding more new sounds on it than any other album.

Incubus band member