The Mars Volta: Octahedron
July 8th, 2009 by Azia Squire in Music news
The Mars Volta is back with the eight-track Octahedron. They’re calling it their “acoustic” album, which is only appropriate for them. It’s a solid effort that’s spilt down the middle with hits and misses. Though “Teflon” features some of the strongest vocals heard throughout he album, the musical arrangements sound like something lifted straight out of a space war video game. One of the weaker tracks, “With Twilight as My Guide” drags on for an unnecessary eight minutes and is followed by the only slightly better “Cotopaxi.” The song is cluttered with shrill vocals and bad guitar riffs, and because everything else is so bad, lyrics such as “We’ll be lucky if we eat tonight” are the song’s highlight, but they suck too. “Desperate Graves” gets the album back in good standing with effortless guitars and flowing lyrics. But the true star of the album is the closing song, “Luciforms.” It’s pretty jazzy, but also pleasantly distorted, and closes the album with a fantastic guitar solo. (Warner Bros. Records)
(3 out of 5 stars)
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