Light Grenades
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| Light Grenades | |||||
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| 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 Space rock |
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| Length | 47:39 | ||||
| Label | Epic Records, Immortal Records | ||||
| Producer | Brendan O'Brien | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Incubus chronology | |||||
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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] The album has since gone gold in the US. As of July 11, 2007, it has sold 645,000 copies in the US.[3] The song 'Light Grenades' is used on the Xbox 360 game Project Gotham Racing 4.
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[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.
"Rogues" made its debut at a pair of pre album-release shows at the London Astoria and the Berlin Postbahnhof on November 14th and 16th 2006
The songs "Punch-Drunk" and "Look Alive" were recorded during the Light Grenades sessions, but were originally only available as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of the album. They have since seen release worldwide on the Look Alive live DVD.
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."[4] 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.
- "Quicksand" – 2:14
- "A Kiss to Send Us Off" – 4:16
- "Dig" – 4:17
- "Anna Molly" – 3:46
- "Love Hurts" – 3:57
- "Light Grenades" – 2:20
- "Earth to Bella (Part I)" – 2:28
- "Oil and Water" – 3:49
- "Diamonds and Coal" – 3:46
- "Rogues" – 3:56
- "Paper Shoes" – 4:17
- "Pendulous Threads" – 5:35
- "Earth to Bella (Part II)" – 2:58
[edit] Japanese bonus tracks
- "Punchdrunk" - 5:14
- "Look Alive" - 4:21
[edit] iTunes bonus track
- "Anna Molly" (Acoustic) - 3:59
[edit] Best-Buy Pre-sale bonus disc
- "Anna Molly" (Live) - 3:55
- "Drive" (Live) - 4:07
- "Love Hurts" (Acoustic) - 3:57
[edit] Singles
- "Anna Molly" - was briefly available online on September 20. It was slated for release on October 16, and debuted at #19 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. Anna Molly peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock Chart, at #4 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- "Dig" is the second single from Light Grenades. The video for the single was chosen from a pool of applicants in a fan-film contest.
- "Love Hurts" was released as the third single in some international markets.
- "Oil and Water" was the third US single. It was released to radio stations on June 5, 2007.
[edit] Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | First Week Sales | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Billboard Top 200 | 165,000 | 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 | 94 |
| 2007 | "Dig" | Canadian Hot 100 | 72 |
| 2007 | "Dig" | Modern Rock Tracks | 4 |
| 2007 | "Dig" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 17 |
| 2007 | "Dig" | Pop 100 | 96 |
| 2007 | "Dig" | Adult Top 40 | 17 |
| 2007 | "Oil and Water" | Modern Rock Tracks | 8 |
| 2007 | "Oil and Water" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 38 |
[edit] Personnel
- Brandon Boyd - Lead vocals & Percussion
- Mike Einziger - Lead guitar
- Jose Pasillas - Drums
- Ben Kenney - Bass guitar
- Chris Kilmore - Turntables , Keyboard & Piano
- Brendan O'Brien - Producer
[edit] References
- ^ Katie Hasty, "Incubus' 'Grenades' Ignite At No. 1", Billboard.com, December 6, 2006.
- ^ Katie Hasty, "Ciara, Eminem, Stefani Overtake The Billboard 200", Billboard.com, December 13, 2006.
- ^ Billboard Top 200
- ^ Chris Harris, "Incubus Find Explosive Cure For Boredom: Light Grenades", MTV.com, August 1, 2006
| Preceded by Kingdom Come by Jay-Z |
Billboard 200 number-one album December 16 - December 22, 2006 |
Succeeded by Ciara: The Evolution by Ciara |
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