Incubus - Anna Molly (Epic)
2/5
By: Charlie Potter
"Wait, there is a light, there is a fire, deep fry the dreams with elephant...!"
Or something like that. Oh if only the lyrics were in fact that interesting. Unfortunately, it's just another boring love song about being miles away from your boring girlfriend. We were all young and used to like Incubus. But two things happened - we grew up and heard better music, and more importantly, the band got really boring, losing arguably the most interesting members in Chris Koppel and Dirk Lance.
The music is, fair enough, standard generic rawk. But the thick squeezey vocal makes it the sonic equivalent of a bland meal covered with cheese from a can, one that leaves you chewing away feeling full to the point of sickness yet oddly undernourished. It's exactly what we've come to expect. It's a song from a band who certainly don't need you to buy their CD as they're sure many others will, and sadly, a fair few of those will be people who listened to Incubus in their youth but never really heard anything better of its ilk.
It's hard to believe that a band who have so much good to talk on the topic of Mr Bungle cannot bring themselves to try anything more interesting than a slightly reggae-tinged bass line. There's far too much filler and not enough pay off in the way the song's structured - the verses are treated as a way of building up to simple rock chordage that just lacks any sort of positive weight.
I suppose I should say something on balance. Hmmm... well, it's clear Incubus have made it to the big leagues, and considering the amount of label madness they're probably subject to the music has managed to retain at least a little credibility. I don't think anyone will deny that they've gone for the big bucks, but I'd imagine that it was via the kind of opportunity that was laid out on the table for them, and as a human being who plays music I find it easy to understand that money can bring a lot of security to an otherwise unstable career.
Alright, it's not actually that bad. If you were to take in to account all the bad music there is in the world, then this is better than a large proportion of it. The way the song builds up to displaying some fairly consistent, rewarding energy towards its end, even if it does lack something in conviction, is skilfully achieved. It's just that for a band about to release their sixth studio album, the last three of which have sounded just like this, it's time they either did something better or perhaps just stopped.
Sorry kids.
Artists in this article: Incubus
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