It’s been a few years off for Incubus singer Brandon Boyd, but with the band’s new album 8 being released into the wild, they took to live TV last night to play their new single ‘State Of The Art’ for Conan O’Brien and his audience.
Despite the name, the performance was anything but, and instead felt, well, a little old and rusty. Unfortunately, it’s not just the sleekly-produced songs on the new album (produced by none other than Skrillex) that are letting fans down a little, but also the state of Boyd’s voice. While he’s has reportedly taken vocal lessons in recent years, no doubt to help him soldier on after years of damage to it, the performance fell a bit flat.
Now, the guy has been belting out tunes for decades now, and at 41 we can’t expect him to be sounding as incredible as he once did. But fans seem to feel that he could have held back when writing the new tracks to accommodate his lessened vocal abilities, and the songs may be feeling a bit lacklustre as a result.
The mix didn’t seem to do the band any favours either, with some pointing out that the guitars were pushed to the back, and weren’t able to give the track much punch from their end.
Other fans are just happy to see him back on the stage at all, so give the performance a look below and see where you fall.
