Light Grenades (Snys)

Incubus | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 28, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Epic
• ASIN: B000JBXXZ4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,720 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #65 in Music > R&B > Funk > Metal

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A rare case in which a band actually gets better with time, this California hard rock quintet seems to have finally grown into its skin on its fifth album. Casting off the dated slap-bass funk and pointless nu-metal angst of its early years (well, mostly), Light Grenades is not only a worthwhile follow-up to 2003's A Crow Left of the Murder--the expansive disc many fans consider Incubus's best--but shows improvements all around. Singer Brandon Boyd has learned to temper the words he plucks out of the thesaurus with genuine heartbreak, while the rest of the group proves it can do a lot more than offer up nonstop grooves. --Aidin Vaziri

Product Description

Japanese pressing of the 2006 release from this Alterna-Rock band featuring two additional bonus tracks TBA. 'Light Grenades is a very new perspective for incubus. We spent more time crafting, and sculpting these songs than we have historically' Brand Boyd. Multi-platinum alternative rockers Incubus release Light Grenades their sixth studio album. The highly anticipated new album - which was produced by renowned producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Korn) - is a mix of hard rocking songs and sublime ballads recorded over the last year in both Los Angeles and Atlanta. This is Incubus' first new music since A Crow Left of the Murder which spawned the hit "Megalomaniac." Sony. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like melted chocolate on your chest and neck..., November 28, 2006

By 

Chris Cardinal (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light Grenades (Snys) (Audio CD)

Brandon once promised that A Crow Left Of The Murder would be like "melted choclate on your chest and neck." To many an Incubus faithful, this didn't hold up. The "old stuff, but older" feel didn't work the way we wanted it to. It didn't sound like warm, melty chocolate. It was original, but it wasn't ground-breaking. It wasn't a cocoon of awesome. And it made me sad.

Here In My Room was the one-off: The gorgeous, extemporaneous exploration into piano that Mike would sit playing, with a pick in his mouth, because he's just that awesome and about to start on the guitar solo. Nothing else compared.

But that was then. And Light Grenades is now.

Incubus is an incredible group. Every album has a different flavor, and a different feel. Each song is its own invention, its own destination and each album, the journey. Very, very few bands accomplish this. Fewer still make you pine for more, year after year. Incubus is the quintessential, "professional awesome," in spades. They've evolved with their listeners, they've shown their own brilliant growth and they've truly gotten better with age.

Quicksand will throw you for a loop as a starting track. It possesses a milquetoast, somber 2:14 look at piano, faded guitar and staple Brandon vocals.

A Kiss To Send Us Off starts with a callback to Final Countdown by Europe. Albeit not intentionally, we'd like to think. It combines a bit of a grunge-feeling intro with a melodic, driven verse. It breaks down into a beautiful, deep bridge that blends back into the chorus perfectly.

Dig is my absolute favorite on the track. It is deep, its message is spot-on, and it gets inside your head, in the best of ways:
"If I turn into another,
Dig me up from under what is covering...
The better part of me.
Sing this song, remind me that we'll always have each other...
When everything else is gone."
Its sound is new for Incubus in a way that only Incubus can reinvent themselves. Its melody will resound with you, the dual electric-acoustic guitar, with even more piano laid over it will engulf you. It's truly gorgeous piece. It's more substantial than Here In My Room, or Aqueous Transmission, but it still maintains that ethereal, purely beautiful quality to it.

Anna Molly is one you should be well familiar with by now, as it's the first single from the track. I was fortunate to hear it back in September, when they played here in Tempe. (I believe it was the first stateside performance in 2+ years for them.) It's an interesting song, but it started to wear on me, through the verse, at least. I'm not sure why, but the lick Mike plays bugs me just a bit. The chorus is great and driven and I love the bridge build up.

Love Hurts. It's true. More genius guitar work from Mike. Mike's fantastic in a way that few other guitarists are. He re-invents himself, he makes careful use of a well-selected array of pedals, but he never over-uses any effects. He seems to have the most perfect ear for how he wants to make his guitar sound, and he speaks and it is so. So much flexibility lives in Mike's execution, and it's why you'll never tire of listening to Incubus' entire catalog from SCIENCE to Make Yourself to Morning View to ACLOTM through Light Grenades. I'm not sure how someone grows from "amazing guitarist" but Mike continues to wow with every new piece. And I tip my hat to that--a constant exercise in incredible creativity, perfect execution and sublime, flowing-over-you-warm-and-tingly music.

Light Grenades: Welcome back to grunge. Incubus always had their roots in some crazy funk-grunge blendings. Enjoy and Fungus show this in spades, and Light Grenades reminds you where they came from. It's tight, it's fast, it's just what you need in the middle of the soft.

Earth To Bella (I) surprises. It starts acoustic, but quickly takes a turn at the chorus. It's not my favorite, but the chorus and the light... is that an accordion in the background? It works. And I love them for it. Also, kudos to Ben for churning out fantastic background vocals.

Oil and Water, more Mike, more unfettered greatness. I love that each song Incubus produces is a complete thought. It's what you expect when you put a group of absolute professionals who are in love with what they do in a room for a few hours. It's that you can see the look on their faces as they built the song, watching things fall into place and catching each and every piece as it came tumbling right where it belongs. A catchy chorus, another good story told, and more of what you love.

Diamonds and Coal. One of these come from the other, and you'll get that through by the end. Though a bit repetitive, you'll start to appreciate it. You won't find people layering two Incubus songs on top of each other to ill-effect. Every track is different. Every song a certain shade of...

Rogues reinforces a bizarre concept becoming more and more clear throughout the cd: Mike wants another guitarist in the band. I'm curious to see how a few of these tracks execute live. It's a *bit* grunge, but it's so post-modern, you'll love it right out of the gate. Brandon has intensity that draws you in, and you'll find yourself surrendering, just like to the rest of the CD.

Paper Shoes, size 9, and more acoustic. Jose keeps it fresh and fast, and you'll really appreciate it. More beauty, rather like a bubble bath. Let yourself get wet, kick off your paper shoes.

Pendulous Threads builds for a solid minute into a heap of suspense that pulls through, like a rocket out of the pull of earth. Free of all that noisy atmosphere, watch what happens. Beautiful vocals, claps, and a slight tinge of Minus the Bear, I swear. The chorus is positively SCIENCE-lite, and you'll love it.

Our last stop, at least for the next few years, is Earth to Bella (II). I dig the chorus... The harmonies are fantastic and it feels like the right way to go out-not with a bang, but with a long, drawn out exhale. The pin's been put back in, breath easy, let Mike do his thing, and watch them live. It'll be the best concert you'll go to.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than people think, January 18, 2007

By 

J. Chavez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light Grenades (Snys) (Audio CD)

Everyone here seems to be unbelievably pretentious. All this music snobbery about the "great era" of music. Come on.

This is a profoundly good album. I don't say that because I like Incubus...it's because it's true.

The best tracks would have to be Quicksand, Dig, Diamonds and Coal, and finally Rogues.

The songs are performed with power and gusto. Brandon has really come into his own with his lyrical and vocal ability.

As a huge music fan myself (including Radiohead, The Shins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sigur Ros, and others) I rate Incubus right up there.

Sure they still have the old reputation as a radio-friendly band, but who cares? It's the music that matters not the "reputation" or all of that other white noise (or b.s.)

Back to the songs though...

Quicksand (the first track) is beautiful. Brandon's voice kills all your anxiety, your fears, the things bothering you. As I drove down the freeway I just melted at the sound of this song. And then it ends....All of a sudden. This song clocks it at under 2 min. Tragedy. It could very well be the best song on the CD if not for its brevity.

Dig is brilliant as well. This song is mellow and sad. I'm not really a ballad man myself, but this song is damn good. Incubus had a song awhile back called "Miss You," or "I Miss You." A lot of people like it. Terrible song. This song though, is the ballad of ballads. It's lovely. It's a Radiohead song. Not as dark though.

Diamonds and Coal is another mellow number. I like the fluidity of the song and where it takes me. Think about either driving or writing while listening to this one. See where your mind goes.

Rouges is the best song for sure. It's a rocking track that illustrates everything good about this band. Brandon has a lot of power in that voice and he demonstrates it on this track. I can't imagine how many times I've listened to this song. It's a booming, thundering shock.

Please listen to this album before writing the band off as "radio-friendly" or whatever other cliche is used today by lazy music listeners.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the last two, but flawed, November 30, 2006

By 

Damien Schwader (Ft. Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light Grenades (Snys) (Audio CD)

To give you a good idea of where I am coming from, I will tell you that I could not stand A Crow Left of the Murder nor Morning View. I thought they were pop-trash, phoned-in attempts at best. Sure, there were some standout tracks, but overall they failed to impress me. Before Tuesday Incubus was a band that showed all the tell-tale signs of fame. The music got simpler. The lyrics got dumber. My faith was trampled. These weren't the same guys that gave us energized punk, funk rock/metal. This wasn't the same band that followed a refreshing sound with a superb rock album known as Make Yourself. Nope. These guys were MTV.

Now, I think the easiest way for die-hard fans to make excuses for bands, is to use the overused term, "growth". Honestly, I really believe the true meaning of this term in this context has been completely lost. A few negative reviews will poor in and the fans will attack like vultures. "Um, they sound different dummy because they are growing". Blech. Give me a break! Just changing a sound, is not growth. Interestingly, when you consider bands that aren't mainstream, changing a sound envokes revolt. That band is accused of "selling out", however when a pop band changes their sound it's defended tooth and nail as "growth". I am all for growth, but not if it means restructuring ideals and the basics. The differences between A Crow Left of the Murder and S.C.I.E.N.C.E. are so extreme, many would be hard pressed to believe it's the same band. Incubus hasn't grown, but they've definitely reinvented and I don't think reinvention is always a positive thing.

With that, I can tell you that I really believe Incubus has embraced the basics and delivered an album closer to their roots with Light Grenades. This sounds like growth. This album sounds like it should have followed Make Yourself. Unfortunately, it's not perfect; some tracks are awkward, some don't resemble originality in the slightest, but as a whole the band seems to have recognized what they are good at.

I think it's safe to say that Incubus has been and will always be good at upbeat, creative rock. Fungous Amongous, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Make Yourself was filled with it. Morning View lacked anything with promise and Crow had a few, but in the most boring way imagineable. Finally, they revive their funkiness and spirit to deliver a few quick-paced, energetic tunes on Light Grenades. Honestly, it was such a relief for a fan such as myself, because not only do I think they excel at it, but I think it's what Incubus really is.

There are slower songs and I believe they are mostly pretty good. They have enough variety and creativity thrown in to keep it fresh. The downfall with these songs is that they are mostly uninspired love songs and some tend to be so unoriginal I wonder if it was really Incubus performing it. The second half of the album flirts with the sound of Red Hot Chili Peppers so often it scares me, but luckily enough freshness and the bands signature sound comes through enough to set the two bands apart.

I see some reviews saying there is too much filler, the album is too short and the songs "Earth to Bella" are unecessary additions. For the most part, I disagree. Even though the sound on the second half of the album is dangerously unoriginal, there is still enough good work there to discount any of the tracks being filler. The album really isn't all that short. The industry standard is an 11-12 track album with songs clocking in at 3 minutes. Light Grenades is 13 tracks long with the songs just under 4 minutes on average for an album 47:44 in length. If anything, it's above average. If people really think the album is too short, then maybe they are enjoying it more than they think. "Earth to Bella" is a weird inclusion on the album. I don't believe it's bad persay, but I hate the choice of splitting it up. I think it should have remained intact as one track. The break is awkward and doesn't lend itself to any real point. I don't know why they split it. The frustrating thing for me is that the outro and intro to these "two" songs is unbelievably promising. It would lend itself well if extended as a bridge into an utterly trash-out song.

Also, quick note. Quicksand sounds nothing like Pink Floyd as many have said. I think the song is undeniably inspired by Deftones. Brandon's vocal in the first half of the song are almost identical to Chino Moreno.

So many people have gotten into specifics, so I kind of avoided that. I guess that doesn't make this much a review. If you are unsure what my thoughts are, then here's my summary: this album is good. And if you didn't like the previous two albums, it's likely you will find this one more accessible and Incubus-friendly. It's not flawless, but it's a step in the right direction. I don't think we will ever get a S.C.I.E.N.C.E. rehash and that's fine. I just wish the band would look closer at what has worked well on all previous albums and mesh that together. This was close, but not quite. Luckily, the band has renewed my faith in them and I will continue to support their career.

Older fans will love A Kiss to Send Us Off, Light Grenades and the Hendrix-inspired Pendulous Threads.

Newer fans will embrace Anna Molly, Diamonds and Coal and Dig.