Incubus: S.C.I.E.N.C.E. 180g 2LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This edition spreads S.C.I.E.N.C.E. over two 180g LPs in a gatefold jacket, the album's first time on vinyl. It went gold in the US and was the last Incubus album with DJ Lyfe on turntables.

This edition

2LP set
180g vinyl
Gatefold jacket
Numbered

About the album

Incubus signed a seven-album deal with Immortal Records in 1996, spent the label's money on new instruments (the old ones were, in drummer José Pasillas's words, falling apart) and quit school for good. A year of touring Europe with Korn later, they had a short window to write and six weeks at 4th Street Recording, a small studio in Santa Monica, to make their major-label album with producer Jim Wirt.

It's the heaviest and most restless thing they ever made: slap bass, big riffs and Gavin Koppel, aka DJ Lyfe, scratching all over it. "Redefine" and "Vitamin" hit hard, "New Skin" had been kicking around for years before it got its proper airing here, "A Certain Shade of Green" shows off Brandon Boyd's knack for a melody, and "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" swings into lounge-funk. Alex Katunich's bass and Mike Einziger's new Paul Reed Smith guitar do much of the heavy lifting.

Many fans count it as their true debut, since Fungus Amongus was self-made. Four of them had stayed enrolled in school mostly to keep their parents happy; a gold record, we'd argue, counts as extra credit.

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