Light Grenades

Light Grenades
Studio album by 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
Length	47:39
Label	Epic/Immortal
Producer	Brendan O'Brien
Incubus chronology
A Crow Left of the Murder... (2004) Light Grenades (2006) If Not Now, When? (2011)
Singles from Light Grenades
"Anna Molly" Released: September 20, 2006 "Dig" Released: March 27, 2007 "Oil and Water" Released: June 5, 2007 "Love Hurts" Released: October 2008

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Alternative Press	[2]
Blender	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[4]
IGN	(8.8/10)[5]
PopMatters	[6]
Rock Sound	[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Spin	[9]

Light Grenades is the sixth studio album by alternative rock band Incubus, released on November 28, 2006 on Epic Records. The album sold 359,000 copies during its first week of release worldwide, and debuted at No. 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.^[10] However, until November 20th, 2016, ^[11][12] Light Grenades held the dubious honor of having the title of the biggest drop from No. 1 in chart history, falling from No. 1 to No. 37 in its second week on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. The album only achieved Gold, breaking a string of Platinum records beginning with 2002's Morning View.^[13]

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 14 and 16 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. Live versions have since seen release worldwide on the Look Alive live DVD. The studio versions of both songs are also on Monuments and Melodies.

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."^[14] 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

All tracks written by Incubus. 

Singles

• "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. The song is featured in the music video game Guitar Hero: On Tour.
• "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. The song is featured in the music video game Lego Rock Band.
• "Love Hurts" was released as the third single in some international markets. It was released as the fourth US single in October 2008, 16 months after "Oil and Water".
• "Oil and Water" was the third US single. It was released to radio stations on June 5, 2007.
• "Light Grenades" is used on the soundtrack of the Xbox 360 game Project Gotham Racing 4.

Charts

Album

Singles

Personnel

• Brandon Boyd - lead vocals, percussion, guitar
• Mike Einziger - lead guitar, Rhodes, string arrangements, bass guitar^[15]
• Jose Pasillas - drums
• Ben Kenney - bass guitar, vocals
• Chris Kilmore - turntables, Hammond B3, Moog Voyager, Rhodes, piano, Marxophone, theremin
• Brendan O'Brien - producer

References