The Electric Sheep. Confused? Me too.
"Talk Shows On Mute" is a shame of a single. Okay, so this review is just going to be the tired ramblings of a fan of Incubus' early songs, but I must admit I miss the Incubus of yesteryear, and some of the songs they're producing today (Drive, anyone?) just aren't Incubus at all. Now, I don't mean to go on a rant here, but Incubus is jazz-funk-metal-rockathon, not mellow Adult-Orientated-Rock. Other new songs like "Pistola" may still hold that "Incubus-Magic" that many of us dearly love, but Incubus' latest single is just pandering to the teenage-girl masses, if you ask me.
Now, without dissolving into a frustrated rant about Incubus every five seconds, here's the lowdown on "Talk Shows On Mute":
Take a quietly strummed acoustic, add some DJ-induced synth effects, and there you have the start of Talk Shows. Brandon Boyd comes in with his pretty vocal parts that are abundant on Incubus' mellow songs, and the general idea of Talk Shows is apparent - pretty, but nothing special. After a few minutes, and after a few mentions of the "electric sheep", the song melts into a slinky, little, clean guitar solo, with Boyd's vocal experimentation in the background. Eventually he pushes the guitar solo aside and comes back in into the forefront of song, albeit just as the song begins to die off. As the rest of the instruments fade, Boyd slowly morphs into simply speaking the final words of the song. And there you have "Talk Shows On Mute". I'll refrain from comments about muting this song - it's decent, but it's not real Incubus.