A Crow Left of the Murder

This album is a bit more raw and live sounding than Incubus' past two albums. A few recording errors are even left in. The album includes some interesting guitar noodling and instrumental parts.Brandon Boyd sings in his unique manner, and his vocals seem to have expanded, even more than before, to different styles of singing (falsettos, singing to the beat of a song, creepy whipers, etc.)Also on board this time around in new bassist Ben Kenny (spelling?), formerly of The Roots, a hip hop band. Not only does his presence change the bands rhythm, but he also adds some lovely backup vocals, as does guitarist Mike Einziger. Einziger really gets his change to show off his guitar work though on "Sick Sad Little World" during an intrumental section of the song that lasts about two minutes as well as on various other tracks. The carnival-like music of "Zee Deveel" and the soft sounds of "Southern Girl" are further examples of the bands versitality as a whole. Jose Pasillas III, Incubus' drummer, sounds a rawer, unproduced, and natural, which surprised me, especially on the quick, choppy "Priceless." Barely-there DJ Kilmore adds to the atmosphere of the songs as he includes subtle sounds that occaisionally come to the forefront. A perfect example of this can be found on the album's first single "Megalomaniac." My only complaint is that longtime fans will recognize Incubus playing music similar to some of their older songs on a few tracks. It must be hard to keep coming up with new sounds, but it was annoying to me.