Incubus was one of the first bands I really got into. Not just like you listen to them on the radio and enjoy their singles a lot, but where you start to research the band, really get a feel for each member, slowly move through their back catalogue, and are allowed to get excited when you hear tidbits of news about their upcoming albums months ahead of time. Not to mention the fact that ol’ Mikey Einziger indirectly taught me how to play guitar, and since he’s such a learned, varied player, I directly attribute my love for music theory, alternative chord voicings, improvisation, and effects pedals to him. I really couldn’t have found a better guitar hero, in my opinion. I first heard Incubus on the radio over the summer of 2000, where they had not one, not even two, but THREE singles in heavy rotation simultaneously: “Stellar”, “Pardon Me”, and “Drive”. So it’s coming up on a decade since I first got into Incubus, now. Which makes me feel ooooooold. What a fitting time for their so-called “Best Of” album to drop! Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

All that being said, for a greatest hits album, the tracklist is kind of a joke. Some may claim this isn’t necessarily a “Best Of” album, but the first disc is called “Monuments”, which is pretty indicative of greatest hits. The second disc contains b-sides, rarities, live tracks, and soundtrack songs. The tracklist for the first disc is as follows:

1. Black Heart Inertia
2. Drive
3. Megalomaniac
4. Anna-Molly
5. Love Hurts
6. Wish You Were Here
7. Warning
8. Stellar
9. Talk Shows On Mute
10. Pardon Me
11. Dig
12. Oil and Water
13. Are You In?
14. Nice to Know You
15. Midnight Swim

So there are 3 Make Yourself songs, 4 Morning View songs, 2 A Crow Left of the Murder songs, 4 Light Grenades songs, and 2 brand new songs, one of which (Black Heart Inertia) has been already released, to an extent. Is it just me, or did they say that the SECOND disc was for rare tracks? The first one being the “Monuments” disc, I think it’d be a bit more appropriate to take the 2 brand new songs, which by definition can’t be greatest hits, and put them on the second disc. But I’ll get to them in a minute. Let’s recap: NO S.C.I.E.N.C.E. songs, NO Enjoy Incubus songs, and ABSOLUTELY NO Fungus Amongus songs. Not that I was expecting anything from Fungus, but I could’ve used at least ONE song from S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. Obviously, fans of their older material won’t be overly interested in listening to the first disc. But let’s talk about the real elephant in the room: the fact that “Love Hurts” is on their “Monuments” disc just makes me wanna cry. REALLY?? “Love Hurts”? Far and away their most mediocre song, it has no place whatsoever on this disc. Nor on any other album. Fuck you guys a little for even making that song. So after removing the two inappropriately placed new songs, and deleting that piece that shouldn’t even exist in the first place, there’s room for at least 3 more songs. My votes would most likely be: “Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)”, “Deep Inside”, and “Azwethinkweiz”, which we all know may well be Incubus’ best song ever. I would probably also take off “Dig” from Light Grenades, because I think it’s really overrated. “Trouble In 421″ would fit much more nicely. Now, if this is just the label’s version of Incubus’ greatest hits, that’s a bit more acceptable. But if the band compiled these songs and shipped ‘em out, then I’ll understand “Black Heart Inertia” a little bit more.

Like I just stated, I’m not very into “Black Heart Inertia”. It sounds to me like they’re treading old ground, somewhere between Morning View and A Crow Left of the Murder. It’s not overly catchy, there’s tambourine in it, and it feels stale. Plus, this is the part that makes it really unlike Incubus, it has a really boring chorus. “Midnight Swim” is a bit more interesting, with some nice soaring vocals from Brandon Boyd, but I’m starting to dislike how Mike’s guitar parts are starting to sound the same; the main riff in “Midnight Swim” is very reminiscent of “Martini”, “Admiration”, and “Anything”, all of which are on the second disc. No, they don’t sound exactly the same, but they have a very similar feel. Onto the second disc!

The first song on the “Melodies” disc is “Neither of Us Can See”, a track from the Stealth soundtrack, which had 3 songs from Incubus on it, all of which were created for it. The second song is “Look Alive”, which is my favorite Incubus b-side (Light Grenades), if not one of my favorite Incubus songs ever, because it’s so different from all of their other songs; frenetic, choppy, but somehow smooth and flowing. The lyrics are fantastic, the chorus will melt your face off, it’s endlessly catchy, and it’s one of Brandon Boyd’s best vocal performances, in my opinion. If you haven’t heard this song yet, I’d recommend listening to this one first. And after that, let it play into the next track, “While All the Vultures Feed”, an unreleased track that I have absolutely fallen in love with. It’s definitely my favorite song out of all the new ones included. I’m not sure when it was recorded, but I’d venture a guess that it’s from sometime after Dirk left. It’s infectiously catchy, and has a very Police-esque vibe to it. The next track is Pantomime. A few years ago, Incubus held a secret show in which they debuted this beast of a song, blowing all the fans’ minds everywhere. I was curious as to why they’d include it on this album, because it’s already been on at least one release (A Crow Left of the Murder bonus CD). But then I noticed it said “Pantomime (Altered Version)”. It’s definitely altered, I can tell you that much. The melodies are the same for the most part, but it’s more upbeat, staccato, and has more of God himself, Ben Kenney’s live bass parts in it, as well as cooler drums during the verses. After this new “Pantomime” comes an unreleased Morning View track called “Anything”. For some reason, this song sounds to me like Incubus wanted to do a NIN-esque song in the vein of “The Hand That Feeds”, or at least the chorus, even though apparently this was recorded like four years before that song. One thing’s for sure: it certainly doesn’t feel like a Morning View song, which is probably why it’s a b-side. Would’ve been pretty cool if they’d included it at the time, though. “Punch Drunk”, a Light Grenades Japanese import b-side, is a great song, and another one that doesn’t feel much like normal Incubus. It’s the yin to “Look Alive”s yang. The next one up to bat is “Admiration”, the second of three Stealth OST songs (though the third, “Make A Move”, isn’t included). “Martini” is another unreleased song, from where I’m not sure, but it’s kind of a laid back, ambling bluesy song that I ended up liking more than I thought I would. “Martini” leads into “A Certain Shade of Green (Acoustic)”, a long-standing live fan favorite, although it’s a different copy than the two or three ones that have been floating around the net for the past, well, since I got into them. It’s good though, it’s got drums, and what I’m assuming is Ben Kenney rather than Dirk Lance, due to the incredible amount of bass improvisation in this version, whereas Dirk tended to stay closer to his album lines. Next is “Monuments and Melodies”, another A Crow Left of the Murder b-side, and the song from which this release gets its title, obviously. The last song on the rarities disc is a cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”. I’m not really feelin’ this one. It starts out with a churchy organ, and Brandon starts talking over it doing either his best reverend or his best Obama impression. It’s kinda cheesy; I can almost picture Brandon dressed up like a reverend, throwing out jazz hands everywhere. And that rounds up the rarities disc.

So overall, it’s not a bad release. The “Monuments” tracklist is a bit less than ideal for anyone who listens past their singles, but to be fair, most of the time, a greatest hits album pretty much encompasses just the singles. And on top of that, we got a whole second disc, which is almost half full of rarities, a few of which are completely unreleased and unheard. Plus, the Brandon Boyd album art is pretty cool. It should at least be almost enough to hold us over til this so-called hiatus of theirs ends. As Brandon Boyd so poetically put it, “…There’s a lot of normal life stuff going on right now—school, babies, mortgages… I’m of the mind to say it wouldn’t be a bad thing to disappear for a year or two years. A lot of people would say culture moves too fast and you need to remind people, but I would argue there’s not any rush.”