Incubus
A Crow Left Of The Murder...

THE REVIEW

Fifth album by Californian band Incubus, "A Crow Left Of The Murder..." was released in 2004, three years after the global success of the partially disappointing "Morning View."

Recorded entirely in Atlanta (Georgia) and released through Epic/Immortal (also produced by the usual Brendan O'Brien), it is perhaps the most anticipated album by fans and critics in Boyd and company's entire career, thanks to the three million six hundred thousand copies sold in the United States alone by the previous LP. It is also the group's first work without the original bassist Dirk Lance, replaced by former The Roots member Ben Kenney.

Despite the aforementioned tremendous success of "Morning View" (thanks to a similar pop-rock shift that greatly disoriented both fans and industry professionals), Incubus created a harder album than the previous one, both lyrically and sonically; frequent references to certain typical nirvana-esque sounds ("Agoraphobia", "Beware! Criminal" and "Made For TV Movie" being the most obvious examples), while not shying away from forays into softer and more introspective territories ("Southern Girl" and the masterpiece "Here In My Room") or into seventies psychedelic refinements (the splendid central part of "Sick Sad Little World", for example).

The important task of kicking off the dances, however, falls to the pyrotechnic first single "Megalomaniac", a violent attack on the then Bush administration with hard rock guitars (excellent chorus, perfect for shouting to the sky during the band's live performances), followed by the full throttle punk rock of the title track. "Talk Shows On Mute" is a beautiful and languid ballad (scheduled as the second single) in contrast to the electric post-grunge fervor of that "Pistola" already released in live version as a B-side of the "Megalomaniac" CD single. Thus, amid strange alternative rock waltzes ("Zee Deveel") and linear pop rock seasoned with falsetto ("Suite Lines"), we arrive at the closing with the lively "Leech", with a vaguely "Korn-like" arrangement.

There's no need to stress the extraordinary vocal ability of leader Brandon Boyd: more interesting, rather, is to underline an essentially "ectoplasmic" presence of DJ Kilmore and a fully sufficient (but peakless) bass work by the then newcomer Kenney.

Together with "S.C.I.E.N.C.E.", we might be facing the best work of the American band in terms of intensity, compactness, and writing quality. An album certainly not innovative, but with enough guts and counter-guts to hit the mark.

Key tracks: "Megalomaniac", "Sick Sad Little World", "Priceless", "Zee Deveel", "Here In My Room"