I’m gonna throw down a gauntlet pretty quick: I’m a HUGE Incubus fan.  They’re easily one of my top ten all-time favorite bands.  I can actually point to any random Incubus album and how it relates to a certain time in my life.  I listen to “Make Yourself”, I think of playing Majora’s Mask on Christmas Day 1999 (I’d gotten both as presents).  I listen to “Morning View”, I think of pouring through the archives of different webcomics in the computer lab during study hall in high school.  I listen to “A Crow Left Of The Murder” (my personal favorite), I think of my time at junior college and how I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life.  I listen to “Light Grenades”, I think of my time at ACTUAL college and how I WAS sure what I wanted to do with my life.  I listen to “Monuments & Melodies” I think of being out of college and trying to get that life off the ground.

To me, Incubus is a perfect example of artistry in music.  They are constantly pushing themselves to evolve and change and give us something new but also entertaining.  Their very loyal fan base is a testament to their success at this. While all the band members are very talented and contribute a lot, I’m personally a big fan of lead singer Brandon Boyd.  I’m such a fanboy that on top of having all of Incubus’ albums and DVD’s, I have both of Brandon Boyd’s coffee table books “White Fluffy Clouds” and “From The Murks of the Sultry Abyss”, which contain his illustrations and poetry.

And now I have his solo album “The Wild Trapeze”.  How is it?  Well, of his own admission, Brandon Boyd said the album was a guy in a room seeing what sounds he can make.  And the album is pretty much that.  Brandon writes all the songs and provides all the instruments (the only other musician credited is producer Dave Fridmann, who provides keyboards), so it has the feel of a guy recording in his bedroom.  But it’s a crisp and polished recording of a guy in his bedroom who also happens to be the talented singer of a successful rock band, so you could do worse.

I emphasize the talented singer part because Brandon’s vocals are easily the best of this record, being layered to great effect in several songs.  Other than that, the dominant instruments on this album are acoustic guitar and percussion.  While a great singer, I’m somewhat unclear on Brandon’s instrumental proficiency.  In Incubus he’s mostly provided percussion, only recently adding rhythm guitar to the mix.  Whatever the case, the instrumentation is competent but not flashy, highlighting the vocals and lyrics, which is fine by me.

Like most Incubus albums though, not everything clicks on the first listen.  But on the second or third, you quickly start picking out your favorites.  By the fourth or fifth, you eventually dig all of it.  My first listen I enjoyed everything, but the only track that really stood out to me was “A Night Without Cars” (my favorite song on the record, which has a great Phil Spector Wall-of-Sound blossoming at the chorus, as does the single “Last Night A Passenger”).  Second listen I began to appreciate the seductive strut of the title track, the hand-clapping stomps of “Here Comes Everyone”, and the pulsing beat of “Dance While The Devil Sleeps”.

My only complaint about the record is that the keyboards feel really out of place at times.  Sometimes they help (like the aforementioned swelling chorus of “Cars”), but other times they sound cheap and really tacked on (like the in the otherwise fine “Courage and Control”).  But this might  just be me.

So is this an earth shattering album?  No.  But it is an enjoyable and pleasant album from a talented artist able to chase his muse in-between his main gig.  Highly recommended.

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