the album that plunged them into the mainstream?
yup. i wanted more of the same, a Science pt II if you will. but, no more New Skin, Idiot Box, Glass, Favorite Things, Certain Shade of Green. instead we got Pardon Me and Drive.
actually that got me thinking, it's not that they went mainstream so much as they changed their sound so radically from what i thought was the future evolution of alternative music at a time when my whole musical world was falling apart, 1996-1997.
Pearl Jam decided to wimp out with No Code
Kurt Cobain just offed himself (better to burn out than make weak albums)
RHCP wussed out with One Hot Minute
Soundgarden's Down on the Upside wasn't close to Superunkown
AIC's Grind was a downturn from Dirt
Max Cavelera was leaving Sepultura
Carcass had released their Swansong
NOFX seemed to be mellowing out with Heavy Petting Zoo
everything i loved was fast disappearing. Incubus was the last hope. when i heard Science, it was so fresh it shone like a beacon in the dark with its innovation and gritty fusion of rock, funk and break beats. it represented hope that there were still good things to come in music. but then they suddenly lost that hard edge, and fell like those before them. and hope was lost again to the dark depths of Top 40 mediocrity.
