Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 06/16/2009
Monuments & Melodies is an elliptical allusion to the hits and highlights contained within this 2009 retrospective, a double-disc set that's separated into a CD of singles and a CD of rarities. The first disc does its job efficiently, running through all but two of
Incubus'
Billboard hits -- the minor mainstream rock radio hits
"Circles" and
"Make a Move" are missing, but the non-charting single
"Are You In?" is in its place -- bookended by two strong new
Brendan O'Brien productions,
"Black Heart Inertia" and
"Midnight Swim." The second disc is devoted primarily to B-sides and other stray non-LP tracks, including an acoustic version of
"A Certain Shade of Green," a remix of
"Pantomime," and a ham-fisted cover of
Prince's
"Let's Go Crazy," where they get the riff slightly wrong. For the devoted, this disc does provide a nice service of rounding up the tunes that got away, while the fair-weather travelers get a good disc of highlights -- and while there may not be much crossover between these two camps, it does mean that
Incubus cover all the bases on
Monuments & Melodies, giving something satisfying to every kind of fan they have.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide