Light Grenades

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 This article documents a current album.
Information is likely to change as the album remains on the charts.
Light Grenades
Light Grenades cover
Studio album by Incubus
Released November 28, 2006
Recorded January - July 2006 at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, California and at Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta, Georgia
Genre Alternative Rock
Length 47:39
Label Epic Records, Immortal Records
Producer(s) Brendan O'Brien
Professional reviews
Incubus chronology
A Crow Left of the Murder...
(2004)
Light Grenades
(2006)


Light Grenades is the sixth album by Incubus, released on November 28, 2006 (see 2006 in music). The album sold 229,000 copies during its first week of release worldwide, mostly in the United States.

Light Grenades debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week; it is the band's first number one album.[1] However, Light Grenades also holds the dubious record of the biggest drop from #1 in chart history, falling from #1 to #37 in its second week on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and breaking the record set by Marilyn Manson's The Golden Age of Grotesque, which fell from #1 to #21 in 2003.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

"Earth to Bella" and "Love Hurts" made their live debut in front of an audience at the Make Some Noise concert on April 29, 2006.

"A Kiss to Send Us Off" and "Anna-Molly" made their live debut on VH1's Decades Rock: Live Tribute to the Pretenders on August 11, 2006, even though the songs were not featured in the program. The same two songs were also performed at Edgefest 2006 on September 30 at Tempe Beach Park, Arizona.

A song called "Punch-Drunk" was originally announced as a song recorded during the Light Grenades sessions, but now it is only be available as a bonus track on the Japanese edition.

Brandon on success: "On a bad day, I'll be like, 'Yeah, we're probably not relevant any more, whatever. We had a nice run, thank you, how the hell am I going to pay the mortgage now?'," Boyd grins. "Most other days though, I think if anybody likes it then it's a success. In all honesty, the realist in me knows the likelihood of us having a sixth album that did really well on a large scale is astronomically low, and I'm okay with that."

[edit] Musical Style

Mike Einziger, Incubus' guitarist, commented in an interview with MTV that the album "sounds like 13 different bands playing 13 different songs... Every time we're about to start making a new album, I tell myself, 'Okay, this one's going to be cohesive,' and it never happens."[3] For the most part, Light Grenades expands upon the sounds previously explored in 2004's A Crow Left of the Murder....

Other songs showcase a new direction for the band. For example, Brandon Boyd describes the curious recording technique behind "Paper Shoes": "There's a song called "Paper Shoes" where Michael and I mic'd our bodies with ambient mics and did the percussion tracks pounding on our chests and skulls. The galloping rhythm is us pounding on our chests. It was really funny. We were trying so hard not to laugh because we were sitting there like cavemen beating our chests!"

[edit] Themes

When asked about the album title, frontman Brandon Boyd explained: "There's a song called that on the record and it felt like the most pertinent conceptual aspect of the album, the idea of throwing ideas at problems and the ideas explode with light and good results and intention on consciousness. So I started imagining imagery of students in different countries protesting and throwing Molotov cocktails with masks over their faces. But there's one brave student who runs up to the police line and, as opposed to throwing rocks or things that destroy, there's this concept of that one courageous, lonely student running up and throwing ideas and having them actually change things. It just seemed kind of a cool concept: the redefining of weaponry."

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Brandon Boyd, Michael Einziger, DJ Kilmore, Ben Kenney, and Jose Pasillas II.

  1. "Quicksand" – 2:14
  2. "A Kiss to Send Us Off" – 4:16
  3. "Dig" – 4:17
  4. "Anna-Molly" – 3:46
  5. "Love Hurts" – 3:57
  6. "Light Grenades" – 2:20
  7. "Earth to Bella (Part I)" – 2:28
  8. "Oil and Water" – 3:49
  9. "Diamonds and Coal" – 3:46
  10. "Rogues" – 3:56
  11. "Paper Shoes" – 4:17
  12. "Pendulous Threads" – 5:35
  13. "Earth to Bella (Part II)" – 2:58

Japanese Bonus Tracks:

  1. "Punch-Drunk" - 5:14
  2. "Look Alive" - 4:21

Acoustic Bonus Tracks:

  1. "Love Hurts" (Acoustic) - 3:57 Released on the "Anna-Molly" UK single and US Best Buy Pre-Sale Promo.
  2. "Anna Molly" (Acoustic) - 3:59 Released as an iTunes bonus track.

[edit] Singles

  • "Dig" has already been confirmed as the next single by band manager Steve Rennie. The video for the single will be chosen from a pool of applicants in a fan-film contest.
  • "Love Hurts" is currently the next single in European countries.

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
2006 Billboard Top 200 1

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
2006 "Anna Molly" Billboard Hot 100 66
2006 "Anna Molly" Modern Rock Tracks 1
2006 "Anna Molly" Mainstream Rock Tracks 4
2006 "Anna Molly" Billboard Pop 100 81
2007 "Dig" Billboard Hot 100 108
2007 "Dig" Modern Rock Tracks 6
2007 "Dig" Mainstream Rock Tracks 17

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

  1. ^ Katie Hasty, "Incubus' 'Grenades' Ignite At No. 1", Billboard.com, December 6, 2006.
  2. ^ Katie Hasty, "Ciara, Eminem, Stefani Overtake The Billboard 200", Billboard.com, December 13, 2006.
  3. ^ Chris Harris, "Incubus Find Explosive Cure For Boredom: Light Grenades", MTV.com, August 1, 2006
v  d  e
Incubus
Brandon Boyd | Mike Einziger | Jose Pasillas | DJ Chris Kilmore | Ben Kenney
Alex Katunich | Gavin Koppell
Discography
Studio albums: Fungus Amongus | S.C.I.E.N.C.E. | Make Yourself | Morning View | A Crow Left of the Murder... | Light Grenades
Live albums: Live at Lollapalooza 2003 | Live in Japan 2004 | Live in Sweden 2004 | Live in Malaysia 2004
DVDs: When Incubus Attacks Volume 2 | Morning View Sessions | Alive at Red Rocks
EPs: Enjoy Incubus | When Incubus Attacks Volume 1
Singles: "A Certain Shade of Green" | "Pardon Me" | "Stellar" | "Drive" | "Wish You Were Here" | "Warning" | "Nice to Know You" | "Are You In?" | "Circles" | "Megalomaniac" | "Talk Shows on Mute" | "Agoraphobia" | "Make a Move" | "Anna-Molly" | "Dig" | "Love Hurts"
Preceded by
Kingdom Come by Jay-Z
Billboard 200 number-one album
December 16, 2006 - December 22, 2006
Succeeded by
Ciara: The Evolution by Ciara
In other languages