The Incident

Description

The concept for "The Incident" (the band's 10th and most recent studio album, released in 2009) came about when Stev "There was a sign that said 'POLICE - INCIDENT' and everyone slowed down to see what had happened... Afterwards, I was struck by the fact that 'incident' is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved. The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events struck me, and I started to collect other 'incidents' reported in the media and news, I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, about a family terrorizing their neighbors, about a body found floating in a river by people on a fishing trip, and more." Composed of 18 tracks, each song is written in the first person, attempting to humanize the detached media reporting of each event. The first 14 tracks are part of a 55-minute song cycle, the last 4 having been recorded later (and originally released on a second disc to highlight their independence from the song cycle). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award and reached the Top 25 of the album charts in the US and UK. It was voted "Album of the Year" by the German magazine Eclipsed and Classic Rock.