Incubus - A Crow Left
Of The Murder (CD)
Sound: B Music: C-
Incubus has been around for a while, and I’ve enjoyed some
of their past songs. I got a chuckle when I heard that their new album
would delve into more of a punk and political direction. It just seemed
like a sad attempt to go with the flow of other bands - not that they were ever
vastly different in the first place. A few months after this news, I was
at a concert when I happened to see Incubus’ video for Megalomaniac on
one of the TV monitors towards the bar. The video did catch my eye,
enough for me to keep glancing back to see who the band was so I could check
out the song later (I couldn’t hear it over the band playing at the time).
Seeing that it was actually Incubus was a shock, not that the video was
exceptionally great, I just wasn’t expecting it from them.
Shortly after that I caught the video, and the song wasn’t
that bad. Like I said, they’ve had some decent tunes in the past, and
this one was listenable. However, I don’t think that they convey anything
but the most general political statements. Not that I disagree with them
about hating Bush, but there are a lot of musicians spreading that message
right now. They’re all kind of jumping on a bandwagon because it’s the
“punk rock” thing to do. Most of them don’t express a whole lot to back
up their statements - making them pretty hollow. It’s good to get young
people involved in voting, but they should at least do it with some new flavor
if they don’t want to take the time to bone up on their current events more and
articulate their thoughts on government.
Standard practice for musicians is to throw in mention of
1984. They could expand on the events or ideas behind the novel, but I’m
sick of just hearing the title used over and over by artists - it’s cliché.
I’m not discrediting the novel itself, but there are countless musicians
who have used the title in their lyrics, and it’s too tired of a reference to
use so blatantly. The same song on this album also makes a reference to
Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade
Runner, for those familiar with the movie). It's not quite as familiar, and
it doesn't use the title word for word - so that's a little better. Many
of the songs don’t have an obvious political statement that I can hear, which
supports the idea that Incubus is just jumping on the bandwagon, as I said
earlier. They should have gone to greater lengths to reinforce their
political stances.
As for the music itself, it’s just so bland. The
single is the only fairly bright spot here, but how average it is, and how
uninspired the rest of the tracks are bring it down further. The DJ in
the band is given less of a workout, and goes largely unnoticed, as the 90’s
have passed and the fad of having someone spinning vinyl in a rock band is over
with. Incubus seems kind of confused of where to go now to remain cool
with current trends. Not that it really matters - the fans of the group
will still swallow for another year or two regardless of quality, until the
band starts to go unnoticed.
The PCM 2.0 Stereo sound quality is average, not a lot to
say - no problem areas, standard clean production for a major label CD.
Though I’ve listened to their past material over the last few years, I’ve never
felt compelled to buy one of the band’s albums - I figured that what you see on
the single is the best you’re going to get with this bunch. As it turns
out, that assumption was right, nothing else here is worth taking any notice of
at all, and Megalomaniac plays out rather quickly after a listen or two.
All said, I’d stay away from throwing down any money for this release.
- David Milchick
