Incubus
Morning View
(Epic)
By: Glennie Rabin - ModernRock.com
The release of Incubus’s latest album Morning View had me wondering. What would the band make of themselves after their fierce, groundbreaking release Make Yourself? Although it was not their first release, Make Yourself made them, carrying Incubus into the limelight and bringing us two of the strongest rock songs of 1999, “Pardon Me” and “Drive”—to say nothing of “Stellar.”
Luckily for Incubus fans, Morning View is drifting along the same cosmic current, just as inspired and impressive. The album was born in a Malibu mansion and it truly sounds like it was recorded next to an ocean. Case in point: the first single “Wish You Were Here” is a melodic postcard from paradise. And the last track on the disc, “Aqueous Transmission” takes the listener under water for an atmospheric outro. Singer Brandon Boyd calls the song the band’s most ambitious work to date, introducing us to an eastern string instrument called a Ko-kyu.
While “Aqueous Transmission” floats along, “Blood on the Ground,” “Nice to Know You,” and “Have You Ever” rock out and the sunny “Are You In?” grooves. The boys from Calabasas, California are always highly intuitive and skilled musicians, with DJ Kilmore’s turntablism adding tweaked, dynamic layers and Boyd’s intimate, stream-of-consciousness lyrics shining on every cut. In “Warning,” he sings “Bat your eyes girl / Be otherworldly / count your blessings / seduce a stranger / What’s so wrong with being happy?”
In the band’s press materials, Boyd writes that “stratospheric string orchestrations, Disney-esque, trip-hop escapades, lyrics about contentment under a full moon, and not a shred of rap in our metal usually spells trouble for a rock band with aspirations of success.” Not likely this time, Mr. Boyd. The refreshing, reflective Morning View is exactly what you’ll want to wake up to.
Make yourself go buy it.
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