Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Incubus

INCUBUS
Adolescents

From: If Not Now, When?
Released: July 12

Here's a free piece of advice, hard rock bands: if your fans are yelling out that you've gone soft (as many did when Incubus released Light Grenades in 2006), don't make them wait five years for a follow-up (as Incubus did) only to release an album so tepid and testosterone-challenged that it makes the previous "soft" album look like Reign in Blood. Incubus' seventh album If Not Now, When? is just that laughably light, that unflinchingly soft, that it warrants a serious examination of the band's head space. The album was preceded in April by first single Adolescents, which turned out to be the only logical choice since it's the only thing on this lukewarm platter that resembles the Incubus anyone ever liked (and is the only thing worth mentioning for Year in Rock; to be honest, the album is so bad that I almost refused Adolescents' nomination). This is seriously the heaviest thing on the record, and that's concerning to say the least. Indeed, this is a record so tame and toothless that, while making the mistake of highway driving while listening to it for the first time, literally almost put me to sleep. If the person on that tightrope is meant to represent Incubus, he'd better nut up and release a fucking rock record soon, lest his fans start walking away in droves.

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