The Mars Volta - Octahedron

The album opens with the tender ache of Since We've Been Wrong, Cedric's keening vocal establishing a mood that's deeply blue, powerfully melancholic, a suckerpunch that hits every bit as hard as Octahedron's unashamed rockers (the gleaming futuristic funk of Teflon, the tense chase-music of Cotopaxi). Pulling back from the full-tilt experimentation of previous releases, Octahedron invests its energies in Omar's gift for songcraft, for swooning guitar runs of high tension and emotive power (closer Luciforms' epic riffage), for the nagging hooks and choked melodies that wreath the churning rhythms of Desperate Graves. "For me, all that's important is if something moves you or not," explains Omar. "I've never tried to be tricky, to be complicated; if it gives me goosebumps, I'll use it. If it's striking, if it hits me as a listener, that's all that matters to me."

Ultimately, the album is another in a series of testaments to Omar and Cedric's unassailable faith in following their muse in whichever direction it takes them; thus far the journey's been the ride of the creative lifetime, and they see no sense it second-guessing it yet, especially not when it delivers so pointedly powerful a record as Octahedron. "The only reason we even have a fanbase is because I've stayed true to my instincts," nods Omar. "We've not tried to repeat previous successes to make them happy, we've stayed true to ourselves, and made the music that we want to make, and that's what they respond to. They can sense this is something really pure." And on Octahedron, perhaps purer than ever.page << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >>