It was the longest gap between two albums – five years – for Incubus, but “If Not Now, When?” will be released on July 12, 2011 by Epic Records, although the full album leaked online on April 25. “If Not Now…” pick-up where they left in 2006 with “Light Grenades”. You can forget about their experiments of utilizing elements from a variety of genres and styles, there’s no even traces of Nu Metal, Rap Metal, Funk Metal, not even any sings of any kind of Metal at all, and no left-over shades of Jazz or Hip/Trip Hop inflections as well, Incubus maybe “grew up”, perhaps they lost their appetite for exploration and settled down to a clean, some may call adult, Rock sound. This is not that bad as it may sounds, but I have to admit it, this Incubus is not “that” Incubus I used to love. This is “something” much closer to the late Pearl Jam (“In the Companies of Wolves”) and even passages that reminds me of Kings Of Leon (“Thieves”) than to Faith No More.
Still, “If Not Now, When?” it’s a nice album, whatever that may means. “Isador” have a subtle Post-Grunge taste, it could be placed on any later Pearl Jam release, “The Original” have the resonance of Kings of Leon with a pleasant keyboard texture, “Defiance” is a nice acoustic piece with the same Post-Grunge after-taste. “Adolescents” – the first single – balancing between Pearl Jam and Kings Of Leon, it’s actually a nice song with a positive groove, it may be a good sample of “adult orientated (Indie/Modern/Post) Rock” and have some nice turns, shifts of tones and moods, interesting colors. “Switchblade” is an exception, they seems to come alive, this song have pulse, it’s pumping noisier, have some nerve. “If Not Now, When?” it’s like Eddie Vedder sing along with the Followill brothers, “Promises, Promises” have a pure American taste of Rock mixture with some Country taste, the bridge have almost the taste of The Eagles, “Friends and Lovers” is a quiet tune, very gentle and intimate while “Tomorrow’s Food” is one more piece of gloomy and discrete constructions of sounds, blending of acoustic and electronic elements to support the shining vocals of Brandon Boyd. This album has a mysterious, soft and intimate glow, probably the “old” Incubus will never return and in time I will get used to this “new” one and probably I will like it, this 50 minutes after all have some beautiful moments. Perhaps, probably, maybe.
