Do you remember the first album that changed your life? The record you listened from front to back without skips that made you realize, “Fuck; I love music,” ?
For this edition of Epilefsy’s Playlist Plus, I wanted to do a full album write up for the first CD I ever bought, Make Yourself. This album was responsible for making me fall in love with one of my biggest inspirations, the band Incubus (NOT the thrash metal group lol).
-Incubus at the Greek Theatre was my first concert ever when I was 14 (thanks mom!)
-I have a tattoo of their Morning View disc artwork
-I have a tattoo of Brandon Boyd’s artwork
-I won a KROQ radio station “Breakfast with Incubus” contest and got to ask the band if they have ever made love with their own music playing in the background
But I digress.. Sometime between 2000-2001, I asked my mom to buy me their second full length album Make Yourself when I heard their single “Pardon Me” on KROQ. The whole record was lyrically, sonically, and aesthetically influential in almost every aspect of my life. Since Incubus is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Make Yourself by touring and playing it in its entirety this fall, I decided to reflect back on these tracks to see WHY they impacted me the way they did, and share my findings.
I’ll be catching Incubus at Ohana Festival, at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point on 9/28/19. shoot through?
MAKE YOURSELF
https://open.spotify.com/album/2i6nd4FV6y7K9fln6eelmR?si=Gf0li5MNT56Yv9zEGYshXA
1. Privilege
2. Nowhere Fast
3. Consequence
4. The Warmth
5. When It Comes
6. Stellar
7. Make Yourself
8. Drive
9. Clean
10. Battlestar Scratchalctica
11. I Miss You
12. Pardon Me
13. Out From Under
1. I love every song on this album. With that said, although Privilege is a strong ball-busting opener, I feel like it’s the weakest link of this album, and possibly my least favorite Incubus album opener ever. The heavy bar-chorded chorus definitely brought forth mosh pits back in the day, but musically, it’s the least interesting track on Make Yourself. It could totally make the cut on a solid rock gym workout playlist though!
Favorite lyric: “Isn’t it strange that a gift could be an enemy?”
2. Nowhere Fast was such a huge part of my angst-filled adolescence. I had never resonated with a song lyrically so much as this, with Brandon Boyd lamenting if he’d “ever get to where [he’s] going, and if [he’d] know when [he’s] there.” Throw in guitarist Michael Einziger’s unique electric sitar sounding bridge breakdown reminiscent of Steve Vai vibes (who I’m pretty sure was influential for this sound) and you’ve got a hell of a young me moodboard.
Favorite Lyric: “Yes it seems as if I’m going nowhere really fucking fast”
3. I have to be as unbiased as I possible can for the band that I have a tattoo of.. Consequence was another track that I’d group along with Privilege as contender for weakest song of the album. HOWEVER the more you listen to Incubus, the more you realize how capable they are of crafting a memorable, badass bridge that re-energizes the final chorus/ending of the song. Raucous guitar effects, strained yelling, and build-up drums intertwine to lead into and make the chorus sound better than it ever did before, and prevented it from taking the weakest link award from Privilege.
Favorite lyric: “Consequence you’ll see will be stranger than a gang of drunken mimes”
4. It changes ALL the time, but The Warmth is probably one of my all-time favorite songs in the Incubus discography. It does a beautiful job showcasing all five members’ attributes that combine to create a special type of euphoria only Incubus can bring. It has WHALE SOUND samples! This song creates an ambience, destroys it, and still makes it make sense. I can confirm I shed a single tear the first time I ever saw this live. If you’re down to cry check out one of my favorite live performances of this song at Incubus’s legendary Red Rocks show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX1fO-1iCa0
Favorite lyric: “Don’t let the world bring you down, not everyone here is that fucked up and cold”
5. When It Comes is probably one of my favorite sleeper Incubus tracks. I remember listening to this song a lot when I would visit Mexico because the verses made me feel like a tourist, while the chorus reminded me of home. To this day (TO THIS DAY!) I cannot distinguish the crazy sounds meshing between guitarist Mike Einziger and DJ Kilmore, but it just works so seamlessly here.
Favorite lyric: “It feels like a matador is taunting me with with his reddest red cloth and I am the bull”
6. I’m almost sure that Stellar was the first song I ever dedicated to a girl. The music video was stellar as well; women and outer-space are just a winning combination (Ellen Ripley anyone?). I remember trying to learn this song and f***ing up the sliding string bends every single time; so I decided to learn Drive (more on that in a bit). This song was personally eye-opening because even though I wasn’t crazy about the chorus, I realized as a whole it did a great job taking you through the journey anyway. It made me understand music sometimes had to cater to the whole song, and not just making every part extravagant.
Favorite lyric: “We could spend the night watch the Earth come up”
7. We get to the the self-titled track, Make Yourself. It is an anthem of self-autonomy and empowerment. It’s about choice; and I can see why Incubus chose this to be the album name after getting lumped with the NuMetal/Rap-Rock label back with their debut album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. This is the type of song that you can play by yourself at an open mic night and still have it rock out hard. Pay extra attention to some of my favorite Jose Pasillas drumming on that second verse.
Favorite lyric: “If I fuck me, I’ll fuck me in my own way”
8. If you’ve only heard one song by Incubus, I’d be willing to wager that it’s Drive. This is their breakout hit that brought them huge mainstream success. I remember old fans getting upset that Incubus had “sold out,” but damn if the rest of the world didn’t buy in. Built around an acoustic riff, it’s such a kickback song that can get away being played in your headphones, at a [vegetarian] Carne Asada, or at your (un)favorite bar. It was the first song I ever learned to play in its entirety and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Fun fact: Vocalist Brandon Boyd and drummer Jose Pasilla’s ended up drawing half the music video themselves due to time and budget constraints; check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgT9zGkiLig
Favorite lyric: “Will I choose water over wine, and hold my own and drive?”
9. I bought a Djembe a couple years after learning it was the percussion that drove Clean. I was absolutely trash at it. Clean begins with a simple minute long instrumental that builds and layers to an apex only to disintegrate into a mild-mannered verse; and yet it just works. This song is solely responsible for making me occasionally appreciate long-winded introductions as long as they make a valid point.
Favorite lyric: “I need a map of your head translated into English so I can learn to not make you frown”
10. My favorite lyric for Battlestar Scratchalactica is kind of a joke because there are no true lyrics, just samples. It’s essentially a DJ battle among Incubus+DJ Kilmore, Cut Chemist, and DJ Nu-Mark. I remember I used to skip this song a lot when I’d listen to the CD because it just seemed like such an abrupt interruption transitioning between Clean and I Miss You. Eventually it’s infectious groove grew on me and when I was exposed to more hip-hop music, I appreciated the art of well-placed interludes way more.
Favorite lyric: “He cuts the music with so much class”
11. Even though I love Blink 182’s I Miss You, Incubus’s I Miss You will always be the OG IMY to me. Drop tune to D guitars give it a somber “should not send that text” mood and Brandon Boyd is just crying the whole time but I love it. It manages to evoke the powerful impact that those three words mean when they’re said. Still, it’s not as cool as Stellar and it’s not their best love song.
Favorite lyric: “To know that you feel the same as I do is a three-fold Utopian dream”
12. Pardon Me is single-handedly to blame for inciting my obsession of guitar pedal effects. Mike Einziger was my first huge influence in the world of guitar, and his delay/phaser/volume swelling that kicks off this song was always something I dreamed of playing in my adolescence. Initially this song didn’t do well as a single, but Los Angeles-based KROQ radio station played an acoustic version of this song that gained popularity around the world, and eventually the regular version skyrocketed into sport stadiums, award shows, etc.
Favorite lyric: “Lately I’ve been thinking of combustication as a welcome vacation from the burdens of the planet Earth”
13. Incubus closes this album with Out From Under, a rebellious tune about dismantling the status quo and speaking your mind. It’s the heaviest song on this album and has Brandon Boyd’s gnarliest scream since his S.C.I.E.N.C.E. days. Despite the nostalgia, this is my third weakest link of the album, and probably my least favorite closing to an Incubus album ever.
Favorite lyric: “Knowing this why do I defy? I guess my inner voice is yelling”
Epilefsy PlaylistPlus 