Zack: Way too many years ago, when I was a freshman
in college and before Emily and I had even started dating, I was sitting in my
dorm building’s hallway talking with a friend at like 2 a.m. like freshmen in
college do. There was this guy in our hall that no one liked. He walked down
the hallway, saw us, and came over to tell us how excited he was because he
heard that a new Incubus album had been leaked and he was on his way to his
room to go download it. He asked me if I liked Incubus. I said that they were alright
I guess, and then he left because I think I had deflated his enthusiasm a bit.
After he was gone, I turned to my friend and asked her who the fuck gets that
excited about Incubus. She did not know, because if it wasn’t sung in a Disney
movie or a Broadway musical then she probably hasn’t heard it. And that’s the
end of my story, although my central question remains unanswered. Who the fuck
cares that much about Incubus? Now, when I look at Wikipedia and see that
Incubus did not release any music in September or October of 2009 (I’m hazy on
the exact time that this happened), I realize that someone was probably just
messing with him and he probably got to his room, fired up his circa 2009
Macbook, went to the Pirate’s Bay, and saw no new Incubus album there. Was he
disappointed? Really? Someone was disappointed about a lack of new Incubus?
Look, Make Yourself is a fine album I guess. The songs that actually became
radio singles are all largely pretty good. When the band chills out a bit and
isn’t trying to make music that is exclusively the sound of debris falling in a
Zach Snyder Superman movie, it can actually be kind of enjoyable. But it’s not
exciting by any means. Which is why I’m so confused as to why this album is on
this list. Was there just one guy (definitely a guy) in the room who was really
passionate about Incubus and insisted that this album be on the list? Did
everyone else in the room just cave in rather than ask him what went to
horribly wrong that this was what he connected with at a spiritual level? The
album is fine, but it’s only fine. That hardly seems good enough.
Favorite Tracks: Drive; Pardon Me; The Warmth
Emily: When Zack and I went home to visit our families for the holidays, we spent way more time in cars than we normally do in our city-dwelling, public-transportation-and-walking-filled everyday lives. My brother always has the radio in his car tuned to Radio 104.5, the Philadelphia alternative station that I've mentioned numerous times on this blog. He's not that into music, but Radio 104.5 has a solid enough rotation of music that it keeps him interested enough to not bother changing the station. Having not listened to Radio 104.5 regularly in some time (I occasionally listen to it on iHeartRadio, but have generally switched to their DC equivalent), I was somewhat surprised that I recognized nearly all of the music that I heard. Although they play some new stuff, alt-rock singles from the '90s and '00s remain in the heaviest rotation. It reminded me of all the time spent driving and as a passenger listening to the same station when I lived at home (which at this point was quite a few years ago). Included in that rotation are the singles off of Make Yourself. I wasn't listening to Incubus in 1999 when this album came out (because I was 8), but from many years of alt-rock radio in the car I knew every word. This album edges a little too far towards screaming for my taste (and, inexplicably, contains a rap-rock track), but the melodic singles hold up. Maybe it's nostalgia for the car-ride radio mix, but I'll take it.
Favorite Tracks: Drive; Pardon Me; Stellar
No comments:
Post a Comment