Not much is sticking with me so far. Reminds me a lot of Light Grenades - songs that are theoretically good and tight musically, but nothing with the singular Incubus sound like "Stellar" or "Wish You Were Here". So much space in some of these songs for Einzinger's guitar licks or some sick bass walks or some interesting drumming... I'm not feeling it yet.
I'm just not really into any of these new songs. I'm trying. They aren't bad or anything. I feel like Incubus was just so interesting when they first started out. Then they sort of watered down their sound. I honestly never considered them the best at songwriting, but the instrumentation or production choices on their earlier albums seemed to always carry even the weaker tunes. You could always count on them to either punch you in the gut or make you stop and listen curiously to a choice they made in their arrangements or something. Now, they've sort of taken all that away, and you're left with some of their songwriting flaws exposed, if that makes sense. Morning View, and to some extent Crow, was the last truly interesting album for me. I hate to be that guy too. I just remember thinking 15+ years ago that Incubus was going to have one hell of a legacy at this stage of their career. They kind of lost it along the way. I really hope they can recapture some more mainstream attention again either way with this release.
Review: Album Review: Incubus – 8 The tagline ("A consistent record that's about as risky and adventurous as its title") seems about what I would expect for this album based on the songs we've heard, but then I read the review and I can't really trust the writer's judgment after statements like this: "S.C.I.E.N.C.E., their sole great record" and "A Crow Left of the Murder, their most strident record . . . you couldn’t hear much quirky distinctions from butt-rock peers anymore." I also think that the writer came up with this pun "Incubus have long since unmade themselves" and then decided to write the whole review around it.
It's quite surprising, but I've also been pretty impressed in the last year-ish at how many high profile albums don't leak anymore. It's because of the growing digital world and decreasing physical world I think
I haven't been this excited to hear an Incubus album since Morning View was released. I hope it delivers.
It's out there, I'll listen today at work. I'm pretty sure it'll feel like cheering on your ugly kid at a competitive cup stacking tournament
I've been listening to 8 for a few weeks now as I interviewed Mike (shameless plug: Incubus Guitarist Mike Einziger — The Interview |) And he had some great/interesting things to say. one of the things he said that stood out was describing how 'challenging' it can be for them to record a new album, just in terms of how they work together as a unit. I really like this record overall, for what it's worth.
They posted an Instagram picture with Pharrell saying something along the lines of "big things coming" EDIT: it says special surprises with the reveal coming May 17.
Aside from the songs they already released, which I love.... No Fun, Love In A Time Of Surveillance, and Throw Out The Map are my favorites. Really wish Make No Sound In The Digital Forest had singing though.