The Mars Volta have done it again. They made another album of dizzyingly good songs. Their titles don't make sense. Their songs barely make sense. Somehow, it still works and is still good.
Singer Cedric Bixter-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez founded The Mars Volta in 2001 from the ashes of their previous band, At the Drive-In. Many of the musicians in the band come and go, but Cedric and Omar remain the primary songwriters. They released the unanimously acclaimed De-Loused in the Comatorium in 2003. Their follow up, Frances the Mute, was another success. Both of the aforementioned CDs are concept albums based on the journey of two different central characters. Their new album, The Bedlam in Goliath, hit the stores Jan. 28.
Many people have trouble describing how The Mars Volta sound. I have experienced this problem as well. However, I have found a solution for this dilemma. Think of the most ADHD kid you know. Imagine he's good at playing instruments. Give him a bag of 'shrooms, all sorts of different instruments and time in a recording studio. The Mars Volta should sound something like that.
The origin of this album is something worth noting. While inJerusalem, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez bought an old board game similar to Ouija. While they were touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006, the band would go and play with the "soothsayer" -- as they called it -- after every show. The "soothsayer" would tell them stories and demand things from the band. The more they used the "soothsayer," the worse luck they had. Band members became injured, Rodriguez-Lopez's studio flooded; basically, all sorts of creepy stuff happened. In order to stop the curse, Rodriguez-Lopez buried the "soothsayer" and it was not talked of again during the recording sessions. All of the song's lyrics come from things said by the cursed board game.
The Bedlam in Goliath kicks off with "Aberinkula", a perfect statement of what The Mars Volta do. They rock, they funk and they probably do lots of psychedelics. But, as I keep saying, it works. Their leadoff single, "Wax Simulacra," doesn't impress me. It's too short for a Mars Volta song in my opinion. The rest of the album is predictable, at least for The Mars Volta. The album's magnum opus, "Soothsayer," conveys the gravity of The Mars Volta's two-ton freak-out funk rock. Many people use Led Zeppelin as a benchmark for the overall "big-ness" of their sound (somewhere, an English teacher is crying because of "big-ness").
I don't mind the album; I think it's alright. What bothers me is that it sounds exactly like The Mars Volta. I don't hear any musical growth with The Bedlam in Goliath. It's the tried and true Mars Volta method: ambient sound intro, funk-rock-trippy song that goes on for a while, ambient sound outro. I do appreciate that they now no longer have tracks that are completely filled with ambient noise. Thank you Cedric and Omar. I like their music, don't get me wrong, I just wish they would branch out and do something different from what they've always done. It's sort of like Slayer or AC/DC: It's an acquired taste. There's not much difference between the songs, but it does what they do best.
The Bedlam in Goliath sounds like The Mars Volta -- exactly how you'd imagine it.
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