There is a terrible truth burned in the back of my mind about a band I used to praise. Everyone has liked bands in the past that they regret, and a lot of times they like these bands back when they didn't know that much music, and sort of used them to get into other bands, which is fine. I'm sure if you used Black Veil Brides to get into metal music, you'd be horrified by that fact. But there is one band I really cannot forgive myself for liking the way I did.
I used to legitimately like Hoobastank. A lot.
Granted, it was when I was in middle school, and that’s when most people listen to things they regret. However, I’m not sure I regret ever liking Hoobastank. Then again, the image of the band in my mind was different than that of anyone growing up while The Reason was a popular album (which is actually only a song I heard for the first time fairly recently). No, all I knew from them was “Crawling in the Dark”, “Remember Me”, and “Running Away”. With those songs in mind, I figured the rest of their work would be as good. Of course, when I finally got around to listening to their self-titled album, I was extremely bored and ripped off as well. However, whenever I read anything about them on the internet, I always saw people comparing them to Incubus. So, after feeling completely burned by Hoobastank, I decided to check out an Incubus album. Fortunately for me, our local library was selling a copy of Make Yourself for 50 cents. Naturally I took this opportunity and popped it right into my stereo when I got home.
One of the first things I noticed about this album was how musically sound each member was. The drums always did a surprising job carrying the song, not doing anything obscenely complex, but still providing very intriguing rhythms that go along perfectly with Dirk Lance’s playing. On that note, Dirk Lance is quite possibly one of the greatest bassists of modern age. His work on this album is spectacular. Of course, after listening to S.C.I.E.N.C.E., I have heard him utilizing his talents in a better way, but that doesn’t stop the bass playing on here from being anything short than amazing. Not only is his playing really skillful note wise, but he is also able to play together with the drums and create an extremely compact feel that most artists cannot accomplish. “Clean” and “The Warmth” are two songs that come to mind when I think of that, the latter containing one of the most memorable basslines I’ve ever heard.
Mike Einziger is excellent at using guitar pedals. The clean tones on this album are dominated with the usage of phasers and delays, especially on songs like “Pardon Me”, “Nowhere Fast”, and “The Warmth”, creating both funky and atmospheric feels to the music at times. On the topic of effects used in “The Warmth”, DJ Kilmore fills the DJ role in the band extremely well, incorporating whale-like samples all throughout this track, blending with Einziger’s work extremely well. Kilmore does a great job enhancing atmospheres created by Einziger’s playing, especially on “Pardon Me” and the spacey “Stellar”, as well creating very original funky style work on “Battlestar Scratchalachia”. Not only is everyone great at their assigned role, but everything they play accommodates what the other member is doing. Their real tightness can be easily found on the tracks based around a build that eventually breaks into something absolutely great, such as “When It Comes” or “Clean”, the first of the two being quite possibly the album’s strongest track.
Of course, a lot of the appeal to this band comes from vocalist Brandon Boyd, who really is a vocalist like no other. His voice is larger than life on these recordings (and even more so live). On tracks such as “Out from Under” and “Make Yourself”, he is borderline screaming the words. However, he can also sing softer songs very well, illustrated on the ballad “I Miss You” and the acoustic “Drive”. He also keeps the music interesting with unique lyricism that you really don’t see in most mainstream rock bands, creating bizarre yet brilliant lyrics that all revolve around one central theme: freedom.
The chorus of “Privilege” is one of the tracks that illustrate this theme the most, with the lyrics “I see you in line / dragging your feet / you have my sympathy / the day you were born / you were born free / that is your privilege.” “When It Comes” and “Make Yourself” reflect on this theme as well, with some very memorable quotes like “If you let them *** you / there will be no foreplay / rest assured they’ll screw you complete until your ass is blue and gray” and “I’m feeling emphatic about not being static and not feeding the bull*** that’s being fed to me / because now I’m full.” While there are definitely weaker lines all throughout this album such as “consequence you’ll find is stranger than a gang of drunken mimes” and “to resist is to piss in the wind, anyone who does will end up smelling”, the good far outweighs the bad.
Which can be said about any flaws this album has. There are definitely a few songs on here that feel underwhelming compared to the rest of the album, including “Nowhere Fast”, “Consequence”, and “Out from Under”, which is unfortunately the album closer. Make Yourself is not an album that ends on a particularly strong note at all, which is a disappointment from this band, considering they could’ve made something really strong to close it out. However, the track still isn’t a particularly bad song, and nor are any of the weaker tracks either. While Make Yourself definitely isn’t a perfect album, it is the embodiment of mainstream rock done well in my mind, and it shows that Incubus did exactly as the title suggested. They made themselves into a band with a sound true to each members talents, and really set themselves apart from every other mainstream group out there.
Top 5 Songs:
5. Make Yourself
4. Pardon Me
3. Clean
2. The Warmth
1. When It Comes
