Artist: Incubus
Album:A Crow Left of the Murder
Label: Epic Records
Rating:
Reviewer: John Frank

Ok, Incubus…everybody knows who they are; at some point your radio has come across “Pardon Me” or “Drive”, these guys have hit huge success in the last few years. For me, this has always been a band that I enjoyed, but wasn’t in like a huge rush to get every CD they made, because I simply thought they sounded too much the same, especially after Morning View. But then I heard the first single off of this album: “Megalomaniac.” Wow, different…definitely different; I like different, so I am going to check out “A Crow Left of the Murder.”

The CD opens very upbeat and strong with “Megalomaniac,” and the namesake of the album is another quick song that just moves the tempo of the beginning of this album. I had a feeling that because of the political nature of the single, this album may be filled with politics and lyrics of a serious nature, but at this point, it looks like it is another light-hearted, semi-serious disc with great melodies. The next few tracks slow down the tempo a bit, but not too much. “Talk Show on Mute” is a great track to just sit down and listen to, a “chill” song if you want to put it that way.

The speed begins to pick up again with “Pistola,” but it varies between all of the remaining tracks. “Here in My Room” is definitely the slowest track, but it has the feeling of a great acoustic song that will just capture the heart of someone who has listened to the album to that point. The final song is a good mix of everything that is contained in this album, and it leaves you with a feeling that you want to listen to the whole thing again, just to make sure you heard everything going on.

It is very obvious that the guys have spent a lot of time on this album, seeing the effects are very deep, and there are a lot of little nuances that may go unnoticed the first listen. In one of my personal favorites, “Talk Show on Mute,” there is a little dinging type of beat in the background that just passed by my ear until I turned the volume up, and it gave the song a very deep, serene atmosphere to it. The whole album is just filled with reasons to look more closely at every song, and listen to all parts. From distortions in the turntable effects to the vocals being somewhat muttered so as to make you listen to actually hear everything being said, “A Crow Left of the Murder” is one of the few albums that actually gets your mind thinking about it, but is still able to relax you if you just want to kick back and have a listen to some peaceful music.

Overall, this album is one of the best ones I have heard in a long while, and am looking forward to hearing it a few times in my player so I can pick up all the different sounds Incubus manages to put in this album.