Grenades

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Lore & Background

The album title comes from a song on the record. In a 2006 Kerrang! interview, 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.' He imagined a student running up to a police line and throwing ideas instead of rocks, calling it 'the redefining of weaponry.' The songs 'Earth to Bella' and 'Love Hurts' made their live debut at the Make Some Noise concert on April 29, 2006. 'A Kiss to Send Us Off' and 'Anna Molly' debuted on VH1's Decades Rock on August 11, 2006, and were also performed at Edgefest 2006 on September 30 at Tempe Beach Park, Arizona. 'Rogues' debuted at pre-release shows at the London Astoria and Berlin Postbahnhof on November 14 and 16, 2006. The bonus tracks 'Punch Drunk' and 'Look Alive' were recorded during the Light Grenades sessions and originally only available on the Japanese edition; live versions later appeared on the Look Alive DVD, and studio versions on Monuments and Melodies.

In Their Own Story

Guitarist Mike Einziger told MTV 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.' For the most part, Light Grenades expands on the sounds of 2004's A Crow Left of the Murder.... Other songs show a new direction. Brandon Boyd described the recording of 'Paper Shoes': '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!' Critical reception was generally favorable, with a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100 from 13 critics. Jon Foreman of IGN praised the single 'Dig' in December 2006, noting the band's 'almost schizophrenic range.' Mike Schiller of PopMatters wrote in January 2007 that 'Boyd sounds as Patton-esque in his modern rock operatics as ever.' Joe Crofton of MusicOMH considered it an improvement over A Crow Left of the Murder..., writing 'These are actual songs, in the vein of Make Yourself and the better half of Morning View.' Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone awarded three out of five stars, comparing the title track to Butthole Surfers. In a 2022 Louder Sound article, Boyd placed the album fifth in his ranking of Incubus's discography, reflecting 'we were in a creative love affair and still in the honeymoon phase... But this was the time where a lot of interpersonal differences were coming in.'

Did You Know?

• Light Grenades sold 359,000 copies worldwide in its first week and 165,000 in the US, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.
• The percussion track for 'Paper Shoes' was recorded by Brandon Boyd and Mike Einziger pounding on their own chests and skulls with ambient microphones.
• The album's title track inspired Boyd to imagine a student throwing ideas instead of Molotov cocktails at a police line.
• 'Punch Drunk' and 'Look Alive' were originally only available as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of the album.
• Kerrang! ranked Light Grenades fifth out of Incubus's eight albums in 2020, noting it showed 'signs of the burnout that would lead to their five-year hiatus.'