Am I weird for thinking this the best Mars Volta album? For preferring it over De-loused In The Comatorium? Perhaps.
Actually, I'm not being completely honest here: I do think De-loused In The Comatorium is the better album, I really do. If I look at it objectively I can clearly see I should prefer it to Amputechture. But I don't.
After the relatively easy-listening of De-loused... and the total freak-out of Frances The Mute (also a fan favorite) many say The Mars Volta just went too far with this their third album. Not melodic enough, not enough memorable songs, not enough hooks. Simply too proggy and weird and jazzy and complicated for the band's own good.
It's also considerably quiter and moodier than any other Mars Volta record, and more tracks than I'd care to admit remind me of Portishead. Especially the amazing opener Vicarious Atonement. Just when you think the song is never going to go anywhere that first piano chord hits at 4:50 and suddenly the whole song makes sense.
But perhaps that's exactly why I Amputechture. Because it lets songs linger for almost five minutes before it brings the point home. Because it doesn't kiss your ass, doesn't try to lure you in. The album just sits there looking at you going "Well, are you gonna dig this shit or not, asshole? No? Then fuck off, buddy. It's not like I don't have better things to do than try to please you and your dumb ass. Douchebag."
It's the equivalent of being naturally drawn in to the girl who couldn't care less about you. Why won't she give me the time of day? What have I done wrong? She's intriguing and a little rude, she won't talk to me hence she must be hiding something and I won't stop until I figure out what it is.
That was a strange analogy, I've never been good at those. I'm starting to sound like Dennis Miller: "It's like a Lithuanian belly dancer doing hoolahoops next to a pickle!". What the fuck does that even more?
Wow, even that analogy sucked. I'll shut up now and let Amputechture do the talking. The cookie-jar percussion inferno nine minutes and forty-five seconds into Day Of The Baphomets rules your face.
(mp3) The Mars Volta - Vicarious atonement
(mp3) The Mars Volta - Vermicide
(mp3) The Mars Volta - Day of the Baphomets
Buy it @ Amazon.com
1 comments:
A good album no doubt. And for what it's worth, I think it's better than De-Lousing the Comatorium.
I think it's always going to be debatable since the other works make it apples and oranges, and straight up goes into personal preference. I like the schizophrenic nature of Frances the Mute with the rocking back and forth ADD cohesive tendencies. But that's me. Can't we agree there's a lot of ass-kicking going on and the real enemies are the unbelievers who push simpleness in music like some goddamn proletariat merit badge?
And if it ever comes up, I think Bedlam in Goliath is a pathetic representation of what Thomas Pridgen can do live, even if it's a fun story.
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