Brandon Boyd’s game has decayed a bit. On his band’s first album in five years, the Incubus heartthrob — who once tugged at TRL viewers’ heartstrings with the riffed-out sugar shot "Stellar" — is telling his beloved she’s "light like a feather, bright like a dying star" on "Switchblade." Just as Boyd’s lyrics have gone a little soft, so Incubus’ seventh album dilutes the hard-edged funk rock of their early-2000s peak popularity into slick, inert ripples of interchangeable power pop. Incubus retain some of their early, macabre nerdiness (the harmony-bedecked "Tomorrow’s Food" reminds us of our dirt-bound mortality), but, for all the energy, the melodies fail to ignite.
Listen to "In The Company of Wolves":
Related• Video: Incubus Discuss Weeklong Series of L.A. Shows
