REVIEWED: If Not Now, When? by Incubus


Admittedly, I stopped listening to Incubus 'seriously' right after 2001's Morning View because, to reiterate the point that I made in the previous review, I was one of those who stopped or didn't grow up after 1999. At the time it feels like as if the band has deliberately alienated their fans by releasing materials that no longer 'rock my socks off', or something. And while critics left and right were talking about maturity in sound, none of those that was written makes any sense to me. Not until 2011...

Admittedly, it did take a very long time for me to properly digest the fact that Incubus is no longer the band that I used to like when they were merely Red Hot Chilli Peppers' carbon copy (1997's S.C.I.E.N.C.E.). And very long time it is since in that time, the band has gone on to release another two albums, A Crow and Light Grenades, the latter which I didn't give even the slightest of a chance for a listen. Before this Incubus has pretty much lost it. But not until 2011...

Admittedly, after I braved myself and gave their new album a spin did it start to hit me hard right on my face and everything starts to make a lot of sense. Everything as in the whole sound evolution thing in which I rejected outwardly in the first place. I thought that bands like Incubus are supposed to be a hard rocking band until they cease to exist (or until they have rendered themselves irrelevant), and that by improving on a sound that was already perfectly theirs into an unfamiliar territory that they were making a big mistake. But then not until 2011...

Admittedly, after an endless two weeks' worth of a serving of the refresher that is If Not Now, When?, I have now a very clear image of what Incubus is in relation to their new, more experimental sound - for a band maturing and growing more comfortable in their own skin, they no longer have to be the pushover that tries so hard to impress other people, to nail home a point. For me, the previous three studio albums are like the transitional phase for them, and this sixth long player is the finished product. This is 2011...

Admittedly, when looking at all of their previous releases (and yes, I've given both A Crow and Light Grenades a fair amount of careful listening), If Not Now is probably not their strongest record to date, repeating practically the same thing that I've written about My Morning Jacket's new album. The opener for example, sounds like a cheesy 80's Olympic anthem of some sort, so they sound kind of debilitated and humdrum. Then they too had the sort-of Silverchair-circa-Diorama moment (for me anyway) with "In the Company of Wolves". But it is all good. Because the whole material was constructed strictly as a unified whole of a single entity (the album), it works. The one or two weak-er moments are therefore quickly forgiven and accepted as one of the means as a whole, rather than a unit that sticks out like a sore thumb. And admittedly, thanks to this album, ironically now I am of the opinion that 2004's A Crow Left of the Murder is Incubus's strongest studio offering to date - and this is coming from someone who three weeks ago, and for a good whole decade thought S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was their best album. To those who has yet to grow up past 1999, give this album a fair and proper chance for a listen and it will reward you. It's a wholesome record through and through. Besides, this is 2011...

LISTED: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009)

*As the year 2010 is about to draw its curtain close, it is the time of the year (of any year) for many music sites and blogs to come up with a top list of albums of the year. Yes indeed the year 2010 has seen many interesting releases worthy of at least a top 20 list. But here at The Genuine Mind Zine we decided to do things a bit different and take a look at some of the best (of the best) releases throughout the last decade. This may not be the most comprehensive list around, lack of hip hop records for one, but all the albums listed here are indeed the most precious of last decade's precious gems.

12. Silverchair - Young Modern (2007)


There were a lot of things happened in 2007, chief among which I was in love, Radiohead released their next studio album on the internet which I got mine for free (well, they GAVE the option and I don't have a credit card), and then I fell out of love. Somewhere along the line, Silverchair released their fifth studio album, Young Modern, which somehow at the time I couldn't care less about it, and now I couldn't figure out why. Probably something about their first leading single "Straight Line", but even that I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it was about Johns' new image which I thought looked gay, but then I digress.

Johns once said in an interview that Silverchair is only begun to be after the release of their difficult third album, Neon Ballroom. It was a heck of an album released on the cusp of the new millennium. It was stark raving mad adventurous and bite the spiny thorns of a hedgehog eclectic. I remembered after the whole bombast died out from my cheap walkman, my brain had melted entirely and is oozing out from my ears like a hot lava flowing out from Mount Pinatubo. It has got to be one of the most important record ever released to mark the dawn of the new millennium, which is turning out to be as mental as the album is.

Silverchair, when they first broke out into the scene, they were no more than just a bunch of 15-year-olds with access to musical instruments and lots of teenage angst went unchecked. Originally a knock-off of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, as the boys turns to fully grown-up men, in twelve years' time up to before the release of their last studio album, we have seen how their musical ability and stylistics has changed and evolved by leaps and bounds that only a true genius is capable of. And that evolution has finally reached its most critical point with this 2007 release. I'm afraid of using the term 'complete' here because their next release might surprise us even further.

Their previous two releases, and most especially the operatic progressive post-grunge 1999 release, though became the milestone in which the Australian three piece embarked on a sonic excursion, both was an uneven affair because they are still being peppered here and there with traces of their old root, the Seattle sound. In this latest album however, the band had come into full circle and settled down well and completely into a whole new stratosphere of muse. And this is no more apparent than in Johns' writings and singing.

What is pretty apparent from the get go (opened with the jittery pseudo dance "Young Modern Station") is that the old cries of a discontented heart has been replaced with one of a young, energetic, full of wits and charm, and wiser character. There is no longer songs that 'screams' at you, but now replaced with an assuring voice that murmurs at you softly, as if almost playful. Then, to make things even more interesting is that this voice is no longer backed by distorted guitar strummed on simple chords but furnished by a flurry of discordant orchestra, played out by a host of cherubs with their little fluttery wings, having a messy jam of ridiculous childishness. There are strings instruments falling at every place at a disorganized pace and tempo, leaving behind a complex symmetry of tune, but it's not a cacophony. This album, with its spectacular orchestra bombast, sounds huge enough for a giant concert in Heaven, but also complex enough to relegate its status as chamber music.

Never has a pop album (yes, this IS pop) sounds as ambitious and bombastic as how this master of pop music craftsmanship has successfully created.