Light Grenades

Infobox Album |
Name = Light Grenades
Type = studio
Artist = Incubus


Released = November 28, 2006
Recorded = January - July 2006 at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, California and at Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta, Georgia
Genre = Alternative rock
Space rock
Length = 47:39
Label = Epic Records, Immortal Records
Producer = Brendan O'Brien
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3c1tk6sx8krf link]
*"Alternative Press" Rating|3|5 [http://altpress.com/reviews/536.htm link]
*"Blender" Rating|3|5 [http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=4342 link]
*"Entertainment Weekly" (B+) [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562767,00.html link]
*IGN rating-10|8.8 [http://music.ign.com/articles/749/749765p1.html link]
*PopMatters rating-10|7 [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/9371/incubus-light-grenades/ link]
*"Rock Sound" rating-10|8 [http://www.rock-sound.net/view_review.php?bandname=INCUBUS&review=24 link]
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|3|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/12568359/review/12665491/light_grenades link]
*"Spin" Rating|2.5|5 [http://www.spin.com/reviews/2006/12/0701_incubus/ link]
*"Kerrang!" Rating|3|5
Last album = "A Crow Left of the Murder..." (2004)
This album = "Light Grenades" (2006)
Next album =

"Light Grenades" is the sixth album by Incubus, released on November 28, 2006 (see 2006 in music). The album sold 229,000 copies during its first week of release worldwide, mostly in the United States.

"Light Grenades" debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week; it is the band's first number one album. [Katie Hasty, [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/search/google/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003493371 "Incubus' 'Grenades' Ignite At No. 1"] , Billboard.com, December 6, 2006.] However, "Light Grenades" also holds the dubious record of the biggest drop from #1 in chart history, falling from #1 to #37 in its second week on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and breaking the record set by Marilyn Manson's "The Golden Age of Grotesque", which fell from #1 to #21 in 2003. [Katie Hasty, [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003520938 "Ciara, Eminem, Stefani Overtake The Billboard 200"] , Billboard.com, December 13, 2006.] The album has since gone gold in the US.As of July 11, 2007, it has sold 645,000 copies in the US. [ [http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46325 Billboard Top 200] ]

History

"Earth to Bella" and "Love Hurts" made their live debut in front of an audience at the Make Some Noise concert on April 29 2006.

"A Kiss to Send Us Off" and "Anna Molly" made their live debut on "VH1's Decades Rock: Live Tribute to the Pretenders" on August 11 2006, even though the songs were not featured in the program. The same two songs were also performed at Edgefest 2006 on September 30 at Tempe Beach Park, Arizona.

"Rogues" made its debut at a pair of pre album-release shows at the London Astoria and the Berlin Postbahnhof on November 14th and 16th 2006

The songs "Punch-Drunk" and "Look Alive" were recorded during the Light Grenades sessions, but were originally only available as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of the album. They have since seen release worldwide on the Look Alive live DVD.

Brandon on success:"On a bad day, I'll be like, 'Yeah, we're probably not relevant any more, whatever. We had a nice run, thank you, how the hell am I going to pay the mortgage now?'," Boyd grins. "Most other days though, I think if anybody likes it then it's a success. In all honesty, the realist in me knows the likelihood of us having a sixth album that did really well on a large scale is astronomically low, and I'm okay with that."

Musical style

Mike Einziger, Incubus' guitarist, commented in an interview with MTV that the album "sounds like 13 different bands playing 13 different songs... Every time we're about to start making a new album, I tell myself, 'Okay, this one's going to be cohesive,' and it never happens." [Chris Harris, " [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1537605/20060801/incubus.jhtml Incubus Find Explosive Cure For Boredom: Light Grenades] ", MTV.com, August 1, 2006] For the most part, "Light Grenades" expands upon the sounds previously explored in 2004's "A Crow Left of the Murder...".

Other songs showcase a new direction for the band. For example, Brandon Boyd describes the curious recording technique behind "Paper Shoes": "There's a song called 'Paper Shoes' where Michael and I mic'd our bodies with ambient mics and did the percussion tracks pounding on our chests and skulls. The galloping rhythm is us pounding on our chests. It was really funny. We were trying so hard not to laugh because we were sitting there like cavemen beating our chests!"

Themes

When asked about the album title, frontman Brandon Boyd explained: "There's a song called that on the record and it felt like the most pertinent conceptual aspect of the album, the idea of throwing ideas at problems and the ideas explode with light and good results and intention on consciousness. So I started imagining imagery of students in different countries protesting and throwing Molotov cocktails with masks over their faces. But there's one brave student who runs up to the police line and, as opposed to throwing rocks or things that destroy, there's this concept of that one courageous, lonely student running up and throwing ideas and having them actually change things. It just seemed kind of a cool concept: the redefining of weaponry."

Track listing

tracklist
all_writing = Incubus
title1 = Quicksand
length1 = 2:14
title2 = A Kiss to Send Us Off
length2 = 4:16
title3 = Dig
length3 = 4:17
title4 = Anna Molly
length4 = 3:46
title5 = Love Hurts
length5 = 3:57
title6 = Light Grenades
length6 = 2:20
title7 = Earth to Bella (Part I)
length7 = 2:28
title8 = Oil and Water
length8 = 3:49
title9 = Diamonds and Coal
length9 = 3:46
title10 = Rogues
length10 = 3:56
title11 = Paper Shoes
length11 = 4:17
title12 = Pendulous Threads
length12 = 5:35
title13 = Earth to Bella (Part II)
length13 = 2:58

Japanese bonus tracks

tracklist
title14 = Punchdrunk
length14 = 5:14
title15 = Look Alive
length15 = 4:21

iTunes bonus track

tracklist
title14 = Anna Molly" (Acoustic)
length14 = 3:59

Best4-Buy Pre-sale bonus disc

tracklist
title14 = Anna Molly" (Live)
length14 = 3:55
title15 = Drive" (Live)
length15 = 4:07
title16 = Love Hurts" (Acoustic)
length16 = 3:57

ingles

*"Anna Molly" - was briefly available online on September 20. It was slated for release on October 16, and debuted at #19 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. Anna Molly peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock Chart, at #4 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100.

*"Dig" is the second single from "Light Grenades". The video for the single was chosen from a pool of applicants in a fan-film contest.

*"Love Hurts" was released as the third single in some international markets.

*"Oil and Water" was the third US single. It was released to radio stations on June 5, 2007.

*The song "Light Grenades" is used on the Xbox 360 game "Project Gotham Racing 4". The song "Anna-Molly" was used in "".

Charts

Album

Singles

Personnel

*Brandon Boyd - Lead vocals, percussion
*Mike Einziger - Lead guitar
*Jose Pasillas - Drums
*Ben Kenney - Bass guitar
*Chris Kilmore - Turntables, keyboard, piano
*Brendan O'Brien - Producer

References