Monday, June 22, 2009

Octahedron


Ok- a new Mars Volta album comes out tomorrow called Octahedron. It is apparently their version of an acoustic album. The album is not acoustic, but is significantly more mellow than their other albums. It is also more melodic with less progressive meandering. I am a huge Mars Volta fan, so I love it. My wife likes it more than the others because of its more mellow feel and I assume that it is more accessible than any of their other music. As an online reviewer said "Welcome back to planet earth."

This album should be listened to alone in the dark with some kind of visualizations on your computer over headphones to catch every nuance.

This is one of the slowest starters of any album- basically no sounds but a slight hum for the first minute and a half and no drums till just after 5 minutes in.

The lyrics are much less abstract, but still kinda out there. There are 8 tracks- I assume this ties in with the title, which is a shape (two pyramids attached at the base). This music is pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum from Rancid- songs take a long time to develop and are much longer and more complex. The song length average is about six and a half minutes.

Check this album out if you are a fan of the band, and if you aren't, this is a good place to start.


PS- make sure you read the lyrics on this one as you listen- it adds a lot to the album.


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