Incubus Morning View

As soon as California polyglots Incubus achieved mainstream success in the late '90s, frontman Brandon Boyd and guitarist Mike Einziger set out to differentiate the band. For 2001’s Morning View, Einziger wrote riff-packed songs ("Have You Ever," "Circles") that are familiarly heavy and cathartic, yet surprisingly melodically nimble, while Boyd's introspective lyrics and pensive crooning provide a template for empathic headbanging. Moving beyond an all-metal all-the-time template, Incubus also craft funk-soul ("Are You In?"), cinematic ballads ("Mexico") and expansive art-rock ("Aqueous Transmission").