Finals are going to kill me, but I'm determined to get this thing done by New Year's. Going to have to pick it up.
#9
The Mars Volta
Octahedron
7.4/10
There’s a common argument or indictment I’ve heard many people use in regards to The Mars Volta. It goes something like this: “
Frances/
Bedlam/
Amputechture is probably my favorite TMV album, but dammit, if they would just cut out some of the damn random noise/not put so much filler in their tracks/cut down on the studio effects, they’d be so much better and I could listen to them more.” In other words, if they would just FOCUS, they could produce something truly spectacular. Well, to anybody who’s ever said something similar to that…
Here you go!
Not that this album is nearly that simple. But for all the crap this album has taken (although I did enjoy the
Hitler Youtube video on the subject), 90% of it isn’t deserved. Some criticism is obviously valid. Thomas Pridgen’s performance on
Bedlam was so good that, amazingly, Jon Theodore, who is an equally incredible drummer in his own right, wasn’t even missed. Pridgen, however, all but disappears on
Octahedron, his
bat**** craziness held back by the timidity of most of the album. And apart from Cotopaxi, there are no moments of pure frenetic energy that made the previous TMV albums so great. And I wouldn’t put this album above any of the 3 albums I listed above. But that doesn’t mean
Octahedron can be written off. This is by far Cedric’s best vocal effort to date, and it’s nice to hear his voice without it being filtered through multiple layers of effects for once. Teflon is going to go down as a top 10 track in the entire TMV discography. Cotopaxi is a teasing reminder that they haven’t abandoned the sound that brought them to this point. Props to TMV for being willing to experiment mixing up their sound, and major props for being able to do that effectively without losing their identity in the process. And that's why they're at #9 on this list.