"One word: Perfect."
Well, Incubus has finally released their long awaited follow-up to "Make Yourself." I was just lucky enough to get an advance copy, as I do with most new releases. It's a great mix, which I will explain later. I could not have asked for anything more from such a great band.
I will go track by track to give you all the highlights...
Track 1 - Nice To Know You - Incubus is famous for their mellow to harsh transitions and they seem to do it alot on this album. "Nice to Know You" starts out with a quasi-Pink Floyd sound, very mellow and relaxing and then breaks into some hard crunching sound. I have to say the first lyrics on the album really caught my attention. It's a reference to Uri Geller bending spoons through telekenesis. Definitely a great opener.
Track 2 - Circles - Not much to say about this song, the guitar is the old Incubus style with lots of bends and octal harmonies. I like the song though.
Track 3 - Wish You Were Here - Great song to mellow out to, if you haven't heard it on the radio then you are listening to the wrong station. I think it's a great choice for the first single off of the album. Kinda sounds like another Pink Floyd type reference with a name like "Wish You Were Here."
Track 4 - Just a Phase - Another mellow song, they made alot of these for this album. A friend of mine and I were checking this song out and he brought up the fact that it sounds like guess who... Pink Floyd, heh. Beautiful orchestrations and some semi-odd timing make this song unique in every way. It's one of my favorite songs on the album.
Track 5 - 11am - This is a very plain song, semi-mellow but yet flowing at the same time. A few orchestrations here and there to fill in bare parts of the song make this track more full and pleasing to the ear.
Track 6 - Blood on the Ground - This song is far from mellow, at times you can hear Brandon reaching for a raspy tone in his voice, not very impressed, this song is a little too "lacking" for me.
Track 7 - Mexico - Time for an acoustic, this track reminds me of "Drive" from "Make Yourself." It's a great song, definitely a song that makes the album highly worth buying. I get chills every time I listen to it.
Track 8 - Warning - My favorite song of the whole lot. I really can't explain why it is my favorite, the lyrics are catchy and the guitar effects add a certain tone to the song that only Incubus could create.
Track 9 - Echo - "Echo" is very "Stellar" sounding, but different at the same time. It's another good song to just chill out and close your eyes to. I love the snare work in this song, but I have been known to love as much snare as possible. The guitar solo is all harmonics which makes the song sound very umm... "futuristic."
Track 10 - Have You Ever - I'm not too impressed with this track, but I am not much for wild crazy guitar and major distortion. If this were the only song I had ever heard by Incubus I would probably think that they were lacking in the talent department.
Track 11 - Are You In - "Are You In" doesn't fit with all the rest of the songs, it's very jazzy like the old style from their "Fungus Amongus" days. I really like this track, makes me wonder if they really meant to call it "R U N." That would make one more Pink Floyd reference. heh
Track 12 - Under My Umbrella - I love the guitar/bass harmonies in this song, it's another crunchy toned track. For some reason the opening reminds me a bit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I didn't like this track when I first heard it, but it has been growing on me.
Track 13 - Aqueous Transmission - Odd track, it's very oriental sounding even has what I believe is a pan flute. The opening reminds me of Yanni (not that I listen to Yanni, ok I do.) I must say though, it is a beautiful song one that sounds like it should be on a "Pure Moods" album.
Well, overall this album is excellent. I do wonder though if maybe you can play it along with Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and it will line up. Maybe I will have to try that. I would suggest that you go out on October 23, 2001 and buy it though. It's definitely worth picking up, I promise you won't be let down.
SC out!