But still effective in terms of distinguishing the overall theme/message of the record, which was "hey...we're not going to play by the rules."

This is probably a good place to reflect on the fact that this is the only record that Ben Kenney ever played on. I'm a big fan of Incubus as well as his solo records (the first of which was actually recorded in ?uestlove's kitchen), and I always wished that he had been given more of a platform to shine on the record. But then again, I guess Kirk hasn't really gotten a chance to either, and he's been on 5x as many albums.