Cover of Brandon Boyd

Incubus, a California-based band founded in 1991, has recently released their seventh album on July 12, 2011, after a five-year hiatus.

Their new album, If Not Now, When? does not uphold their hard-edge funk rock pedestal on which they were founded. It seems their shift towards interchangeable power pop displeased many of their fans.

Brandon Boyd, lyricist and vocalist, who once wrote witty verses that tugged on the heartstrings of many fans, now solemnly strums a chord. There is still poetic elegance in the way he regards his beloved in “Friends and Lovers,” attaining the reaction needed.

Provided that it may not demand attention from listeners from the get-go, like their previous albums (Fungus Amongus, S.C.I.E.N.C.E, Make Yourself, Morning View, A Crow Left of the Murder, and Light Grenades), but given time, it allows us to feel at ease with ourselves.

However, the album contains music that reminds us of our dirt-bound morality—in “Tomorrow’s Food”— that evokes raw emotions. It associates realization of self-worth and based on a concept of human morality. “Thieves” is a song that connects and distinguishes morality; this in the sense of ethics and values that uphold our society by retorting the selfish and materialistic people “selling us water by the river, they don’t speak for everyone.

When we remind ourselves that we only live once and we must follow our hearts and achieve what we desire because “If not now, when?” will you?