.....No more perpetual innocence.
With words we make shapes
And our angles can align'

Okay, I've had 'Monuments and Melodies' for almost a week now and have listened to it basically twice every night. Wow. It is breathtaking. Especially the rarities disc. Not just that but the two new songs on disc 1 are great too. Yep, that's right, 'Black Heart Inertia' is growing on me too, lol.

Anyhoo, here's my thoughts on the new songs:

'Black Heart Inertia'
- Originally thought this song wasn't overly great. But after getting the album, it started to grow on me. I'm still not the biggest fan of the Chorus, but the versus are ace and the bassline is awesome. Especially near the end. The solo is pretty impressive aswell.

'Midnight Swim'
- This was the other newly recorded song. Upon first listen I was kind of disappointed, but everytime I listen it gets better. The bridge part is epic and then when it repeats at the end it's even better. It's like a wall of sound. I noticed it has a similarity in song structure as some of Ben Kenney's solo stuff, which is pretty cool cause his stuff is great. Jose's drumming in this one is an epic win also.

'While All the Vultures Feed'
- Totally. Awesome. This track is my favourite of all the new ones. The verses are brilliant, the guitar and the bassline are ace. The breakdown after each verse is awesome too, reminds me of a Muse bassline, but without distortion or a fuzzbox effect. This has got to be one of the best Incubus songs ever. How this missed an album is beyond me, lol.

'Anything'
- A Morning View track that didn't make it. I wasn't overly impressed to begin with but now I dig it alot. The rawness of the sound is great. It's easy to tell it's from Morning View but it seems to be less 'glossed' than what appeared on the album. You can actually hear things like the guitar vibrating through the snare drum, it's rather trippy. Very cool track. Get's better each time I listen.

'Martini'
- This is one of my favourites. It has a 'Zee Deevel' type quality about it which frikken rocks. The way Brandon Boyd sings in the verses sort of reminds me of Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20. Then there's the solo, it has a huge similarity to the solo from 'Rogues' which was one of my favourites from Light Grenades so when I heard the 'Martini' solo I almost peed myself (well...not really but I was close to almost). Epic. This should have been on Light Grenades...

'Let's Go Crazy'
- This one is a cover of the Prince song. Took a while to grow on me though. Incubus does an awesome job at it. I'm not a fan of the spoken part at the start but the song itself is pretty fun. Then again, Prince's version was too. Mike does an awesome job on the solo in this. I'd say this would be pretty fun to see live ^^

All I can say is that I'm looking forward to 2010 when hopefully they release their next full album. They are brilliant and I can't wait to go see them live again too ^^


Lyrics used in the title of this journal are from the song 'While All the Vultures Feed' from Incubus Greatest Hits album, 'Monuments and Melodies'.