This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
There are bands that take themselves too seriously. There are bands that spend too much time clowning around. And somewhere between those extremes — between the Creeds and Red Hot Chili Peppers of the world, as it were — you’ll find Incubus, a band that seek to have it both ways: They want to have their cred and rock out, too.
That, near as I can tell, seems to be the game plan on their fifth full-length A Crow Left of the Murder …, on which the Cali quintet attempt to reconcile the rap-metal leanings of their early days with the groovy hip-pop tunes that more recently made them famous. And here’s the surprising part: For the most part, they pull it off pretty well. From the swaggering funk-metal and sneeringly punky vocals of kickoff track Megalomaniac and the angular synth-squiggle syncopation of Pistola to the spiky propulsion of Priceless and the 6/4 blues shuffle of Zee Deveel, this 14-cut disc offers a surprisingly solid hour of modern-rock that delivers hooks without sacrificing heaviness (and vice versa).
It isn’t flawless by any stretch, mostly due to a few too many jangly midtempo ballads — by the time singer Brandon Boyd croons, “Swear I’ve heard this song before,” you’ll know just what he means. Even so, thanks to several cuts that sound like a cross between a heavier, funkier Pearl Jam and a less pretentious Our Lady Peace, A Crow Left of the Murder … is a disc that lets Incubus fans enjoy the best of both worlds.
