S.C.I.E.N.C.E. [Enhanced]

No past albums that I can think of posess a more fitting title, as this band, still very young at the time, masters the SCIENCE of genre-mixing and experimentation.

Brandon Boyd receives much credit on this album for dodging the rap-rocker schtick and keeping to a more funky yet nonetheless heavy vocal style. Think of him of the middle of the road between Anthony Keadis and Mike Patton. He is able to belt out energetic screams, but does so in moderation. The drums are the best of any Incubus album and they fit like a glove with the turntable beats. The turntables add the scientific feeling to this album and they are not abused or cliched (there is no overabundance of 'wicka-wicka' type scratching or sampled 'yo's').

This album features Incubus's heaviest material ("Vitamin", "Certain Shade of Green") but it is metallic in a slick manner. The funk element mixed with the metallic element have been mixed before, but this album seems to be the apex of that specific genre-mixture. It is not simply a tug of war between funkiness and heaviness, rather the two are molded together and sound as though they were meant to be. There is also some very jazzy material on the album such as
"Deep Inside" which always reminds me of Steely Dan, and "Anti Gravity Love Song", which just might be the best song Incubus has ever offered. The album ends on a high note with "Cologne" a song which seems more frantic and chaotic then any of those that came before it, but it ends with a 15 minute experimental turntable jam which is a great way to end such an unpredicatable alum as this. With the possible exception of 'Make Yourself', Incubus have yet to serve up anything this good in years.

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cheers, enjoy.

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The sad part is that band couldn't write tunes like this again to save their lives. They're so involved in pleasing their record label and the masses that they're not creating music that will stand the test of time anymore. Every single Incubus fan that I know of that doesn't care about hit singles, MTV, the radio, etc. agrees with me that SCIENCE is their best album by far. That should be a good enough excuse for you to purchase this album and stop worrying whether or not Brandon Boyd is wearing a shirt in the new crappy Incubus video.

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