Did the band Incubus take an angry pill?

February 18, 2004 - 2 minutes read - 322 words

The erstwhile head-nodding, top-40, sap-song auteurs, Incubus, have released a new album (whose title is based upon my favorite gathering of animals term, “murder”) entitled “A Crow Left of the Murder” (Neil Gaiman has an interesting take on this in one of the books of his Sandman series).

Back to the band, the first single released is called “Megalomaniac”. You can find a link to the video here.

Director Floria Sigismondi has given us a pastiche of visual gags that point out some of the difficulties of the Right’s rhetoric (“Heroes don’t ask questions”, babies suckling oil from a bottle), images of Adolf Hitler with bomber wings as angellic wings and Rock-ette legs dancing about, a Bush/Blair-like actor atop a Third Reich vintage podium, and stock footage of Stalin, Franco, et. al.

Addled, yet still serving his paymaster interests

Not exactly hot teens in latex catsuits.

So the video had my interest, but then I caught the lyrics. While I found the lyrics to all their previous songs absolutely forgettable, the refrain of this song refuses to let go:

Hey, megalomaniac
You’re no Jesus
Yeah, you’re no fucking Elvis
Special, as you know yourself
Maniac
Step down, step down, step down.

Wait a second here. How did that happen? This is the band that formerly engrossed us with alt-rock platitudes worthy of Coldplay. Check it out:

Whatever tomorrow brings,
I’ll be there with open arms and open eyes, Yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I’ll be there..I’ll be there.

Instead, we have a driving bass riff and the whispered words “Step down, step down” over and over. I didn’t think these guys had an ounce of passion between them, talk about finding a way to pique my interest. I’m willing to give try a few more songs out to see if this is a fluke or of they got typecast by their alterna-ballads.

Step down, step down, step down