Reviews > The Mars Volta
One Man’s ‘Acoustic Album’ Is Another Man’s Kaleidoscopic Labyrinth
By Johnny Firecloud
Monday, June 8, 2009
After last year’s excellent Bedlam In Goliath, there was little room for ante-uppery in the kaleidoscopic punk-funk of The Mars Volta trajectory. After all, where does a band go after “a relentless, uncompromising juggernaut of an album” that earned marks of brilliance across the board?
Rather than risk ripping a hole in the space-time continuum by finding a way to somehow turn the heat even higher, the band took a sharp turn for their fifth studio album, Octahedron. It should come as no surprise that The Mars Volta, a group far outside the outer limits of whatever confines the traditional prog-rock framework might call for to begin with, have taken considerable liberty with the term “acoustic album.” The album is anything but the typical acoustic imagery of a bunch of guys smoking joints, slapping bongos around a fire and trying not to sound like Sublime. It’s a celebration of mutations with familiar flare, and in understatement, the band has somehow found new strengths and fire without arriving as repetitious.
Emerging slowly from a minute’s forty worth of near-silence at the onset, album opener Since We’ve Been Wrong pensively eases into play as Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s delicate melody matches phrases with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s orchestral atmospherics, offering weighted pauses and layered harmonies that don’t find full-footed accompaniment until well past the five-minute mark, when Thomas Pridgen’s percussive arrival pulls the song into a somber groove. But before you know it, the song’s over, and seven-and-a-half minutes have passed. Where the hell did that time just go?
As evident in the searing alien churning of album highlight Teflon and gentle supernaturals of Copernicus, Zavala’s continued melodic evolution and knack for vocal gravity has made it possible for even the slower jams in the band’s catalog to pack the kind of punch previously reserved for hook-rockers such as Wax Simulacra and Drunkship Of Lanterns. Granted, the lyrics are even more ridiculously cryptic, metaphorical and nonsensical than ever- but anyone taking issue with that fact at this point is either a very late arrival or a sucker for equine-corpse abuse.
Passive listeners and Tolkien haters will likely be lulled by the sleepy, reflective With Twilight As My Guide, but the five-alarm fire that is Cotopaxi chases the sandman from the scene with a jarring lack of warning. It’s the only song on Octahedron that clocks in at under four minutes, and rightfully so- it’s a break-neck body-rocker, the clear single outside of lead-in track Since We’ve Been Wrong- and, dare I say it, Zavala actually threatens to make a bit of sense in the irresistible, bug-under-the-skin breakdown:
Don’t beat around the pulpit / There is no lost and found / Where is the devil waiting / Trying to disguise / I’ve seen what you used to look like / Down here you won’t survive…
The song runs gorgeously into the shimmering soft-gallop of Desperate Graves, which builds to a call-and-response chorus that serves as the only real beacon to hang on to as the song
The epic builds to dizzying crescendos have always been a staple in the band’s bag of tricks, most evidently on tracks like Cicatriz ESP from their debut, or the nightmare-trip of Meccamputechture. There’s little of that here though, Desperate Graves aside, and somehow the album is better for it.
Octahedron may not be the best Mars Volta record, but we’re not in the ribbon-pinning game. It’s a beautiful, understated album by one of the most complex and fiercely talented bands modern music has ever seen.
Octahedron
June 23
Warner Bros.
01. Since We’ve Been Wrong
02. Teflon
03. Halo Of Nembutals
04. With Twilight As My Guide
05. Cotopaxi
06. Desperate Graves
07. Copernicus
08. Luciforms
- 01. Since We've Been Wrong
- 02. Teflon
- 03. Halo Of Nembutals
- 04. With Twilight As My Guide
- 05. Cotopaxi
- 06. Desperate Graves
- 07. Copernicus
- 08. Luciforms
I’m a ribbon-pinner, and this is clearly the bands best album. It’s the first one that I can sit all the way through and actually enjoy it.
They’re still assholes for putting that bullshit Tool-silence at the beginning of the album, and they wish they were Pink Floyd waaaay to fucking hard. But even with all the complete bullshit lyrics and other stuff, this is a quality listen. Finally.
FYI Mr Firecloud, the beast behind the kit is Thomas Pridgen, not Prodgen.
(typo fixed)
What 1:30 of silence?
As far as I could tell there was very low volume tone that slowly rose, that was audible.
I basically took that as kind of a measure of how loud to listen to the album. Basically if I could here the tone it was at their (TMV’s) intended listening volume.
Don’t get me wrong they still do artsy shit like that “crazy carnival” outro shit they did after The Widow on Frances The Mute.
Best album ever? I think not quite, I’d probably go for Ricky Ruben produced Deloused, Bedlam, than this little gem.
Just my opinion though after all.
Does john Fusciante do the guitars on this one again?
also how many cds has omar got in the works? Seems i have bought a new album of his for the last 4 months at least. not that i’m complaining
At last, lyrical progress! They seem to have extended beyond internalised biological-damage metaphor at last, which suited the concept of de-loused but just felt stuck in when it kept re-appearing as the “kick” lines.
A bit like Yes’s “far future, long time, big sky wonder” that filled any of their gaps they couldn’t plug. But at least they gave themselves an excuse, as their lyrics were explicitly fitted to their musical progressions. Mars gave themselves no such leeway; their albums were supposed to centre on concepts or feelings they were pulling out. Just going back to your appendectomy from when you were six doesn’t seem so great!
But now to the compliment; in contrast to the above, human relationships make their first appearance, (as a main thrust at least), less I more we, and more attachment in general, to land, to sight etc. Explaining this is pretty hard, but I’d say their image pallet has probably doubled, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them surfacing into real world commentary sometime soon!
Amazing, just amazing. I absolutely can not wait for this record. Im glad to see TMV pull back the reins a little, I feel like its the right step after the sonic assault that is The Bedlam in Goliath. Easily one of the most complex and fiercely talented bands modern music has ever seen.I completely agree.
This record is just amazing! Just what I was waiting for them… it is defo their best record
If you ever go to a classical concert, the whole orchestra tunes up to a 440 A given by an oboe, begining with the string section. the start of this album is not silence, its an A, and it kinda sounds like an orchestra tuning up. thats my interpretation anyway.
joseph rose sounds like an idiot. the first album you can sit through and actually enjoy? are you even a fan is the real question. best album? hardly, bedlam is redic good and so is deloused. They’re still assholes…what made them assholes in the first place? ill stop there because thats as far as i got reading your stupid post.
I shouldnt even be giving my impressions because i have only listened once but I thought it was weak sauce. Now hearing some of the songs again ill have to rethink everything because its sounding pretty good. I just have one question…why are the last songs of all the albums so epic?
I just bought this record today, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed after the first listen. I think the greatest progression has to be the lyrical depth, as someone said earlier. I think the “blood and entrails” concept had long since run its course. My favorite track is easily Copernicus so far…that’s the one I went back to first. I think the electronic drum part in the middle fits perfectly and I’d like to see them do a lot more of this type of thing (like the end of “Eunich,” for instance).
My biggest problem is finding some continuity between the songs. I think “Since We’ve Been Wrong” sets the mood well, and I like the orchestra tuning idea, but that suggests a view that the entire album is a single piece, which so far for me it’s not. It just seems like some songs were written in different moods and at very different times, and I’m not sure the title really encapsulates the album (it’s also sort of a Dream Theater rip off).
But over all, it’s the Mars Volta and they continue to push it, so what can you seriously criticize. 4.5/5 for now.
I want to add that I wish they would stop with the IV-iii-I trope they use at the end of nearly every line of every song on every record. For instance, in the new song Luciforms, when he says “Trenchant Memory,” the “me (IV) – mo (iii) – reeee (I)”
It seems like Cedric is stuck on this.
An instant classic. it reminds my of a chaotic opera. that sucks about the sax player. anyways dident hear any fat ladys singing. i feel a another page in the chapter. in this book of madness.
bitches
an octahedron is an 8-sided, 3-dimensional symmetrical shape.
8 songs = octahedron :)
sounds more like a b-side collection, all filler no killer :) the songs are great, taken one by one, but as a whole album, it lacks the complexity, the speed and the power of the others
fo show
Yo ribbon pinner, how are you going to state which album is the best if this is the first one you could even sit through douche… No way in hell is this the best album check out frances the mute, or my favorite Amputecture
How is it that Teflon (the second track) hasn’t been mentioned yet, it’s easily a single (as is Cotopaxi). This is Cedric’s vocal crowning achievement as well..Not sure how many times the typical person has spun this record, but allow me to assure you that it gets better with every spin..easily they’re second best, kind of hard to top a classic like deloused.
I’m also not seeing the pink floyd connection..other than the songs being over 5 minutes of music with a minute of anticipation..perhaps you mean King Crimson is the band the mars volta is trying to emulate..newb. just check out 21st century schizoid man by king crimson.
Hey, listening to the album right now. Listened to it loads since I got it. Looking at the things people are saying here, about which album is best and what bands tmv emulate, I’d like to point out something I learned a while back…
If you have a mind-set of ” this is best, this is not as good as that.” and so on, you begin to take away the magic and full enjoyment in an album. I remember a lyric from a band I like that went something like, “sometimes we’re a little shitty, sometimes that’s what makes it pretty”
So love an album without passing so much judgement on it. The band members love music and you can hear it on the album, and maybe because this was the least energetic album or the worst put together is what makes it good. It’s the whole twisted concept of good or not you people follow.
[...] Cedric is to be believed, The Mars Volta are finishing the follow-up to 2009’s Octahedron, and it’s close enough to completion that we can anticipate its arrival this year. However, [...]