Okay, here's the next track:
24. The Mars Volta - Ilyena
The Mars Volta, like The Decemberists, is a band I do not care for. In fact, I kind of hate them. It's not that they're bad; they're not. It's just that for every song by them that I like, they make two more that run on for 5 minutes too long or cover up any good parts with meaningless effects.
Ilyena, though, was a different story. For this single track, I understood why people liked this band so much. With Ilyena, The Mars Volta took all that ambition, creativity, and crazniess and condensed it into one normal length (!) piece of grooving rock that never goes overboard.
Granted, it comes close of times. As Cedric's effects drenched vocals swirl over the choatic intrumental backing, Ilyena at times becomes almost overwhelming. However, the band keep things in check and that's probably why the song succeeds in the way it does. I'm not quite sure how hardcore fans of the band feel about the song (it seems to be a depature from their usual formula), but for me, this was one track that lived up to the hype.