DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM

Most criticisms of this record claim that it's too sloppy, noisy and aimless and that had they injected a little more melody into the record then it would have been a masterpiece. it took me a long time to understand this viewpoint - my criticism with the record is actually that it's just simply TOO poppy, TOO catchy, TOO commercial for my liking. i would have loved it if they would have moved a little more towards the sloopy side, a little more towards the progressive angle.....which is actually what they did on the next album, which is the one that won over my overly elitist and highly skeptical ass.

I understand now that the attack on the record is not that it doesn't contain enough melodic hooks but that the melodic hooks aren't very effective. that the attempts toward melodic structure are ineffective is a much different argument than that the record lacks melodic structure. given that what people mean to say is not being said and that the result is that people are reading reviews of the record and coming off with an incorrect understanding of what the reviewer meant to say, the subtle difference should be highlighted.

The record is full of melody - there are huge influences from britpop, punk, alternative and electro-pop that at times totally overpower any progressive tendencies. we're much closer to "radiohead with more musical talent" with this band then we are to miles davis or king crimson. those of you from canada will immeditately understand the comparison to I MOTHER EARTH that i often perpetuate; those that aren't from canada can think of a modernized, funked-up, alterna-rocked, slightly poppier, de-synthed rush.

There was a succesful hit single released from this record. they routinely open for and work with the red hot chili peppers. we are by no means speaking of an uncommercial or unsuccesful act here.

The album opens with a minute and a half long introduction with a melody that is very reminscent of oasis' "wonderwall". now, whether you feel that wonderwall has a strong melody or not is up to you; it's not hard to agree that the song is melodic. i would be on the side that is not particularly fond of oasis nor the association that is conjured up when i first turn the record on.

The second track introduces us to 'the classic mars volta sound' - funked up, punked out, salsa drenched alternative rock. this track was clearly written around the vocal melody which is pushed so far into the front of the mix that you better have a good set of speakers if you want to hear anything other than the screeching sound of what initially registers as something along the lines of the bastard offspring of thom yorke and robert plant. the track is fairly enjoyable at first and mildly interesting over time; to claim there's much of anything going on BESIDES the vocal melody requires a very strong imagination....

The next track, roulette dares (the haunt of), is the first of several more progressive pieces. it's the first significant track on the record. nonetheless, what's the centrepiece of the track? a huge, catchy chorus that lasts about 30 seconds and is repeated numerous times. in between this huge, catchy chorus that lasts about 30 seconds and is repeated numerous times there are either 'classic mars volta sound' verses or very nice i mother earth-y jazzy interludes that may remind one of santana, srv, hendrix, zeppelin and the like. although the track length is 7:30, the actual song ends rather abruptly at about 5:30 before it segues into one of those nice jazzy interludes that fades itself out....

What bugs people about the track is the last two minutes and the 'pointless' jazzy interludes. what bugs me is the pointless catchy chorus that seems injected only to get people's heads nodding and doesn't really add a lot to the track besides reminding you of the grunge movement.

The next track is a minute long introduction to the track after that, which is 'classic mars volta' and again sounds like something ripped directly from an old i mother earth record as arranged by tool circa 1996. about four minutes in, we collapse into a 30 second cover of inerstellar overdrive before the salsa-ed up tool meets genesis groove kicks back in at full force.

Is this track - drunkship of laterns - an enjoyable listen and a well written progressive rock song? absolutely, yes. is it a brilliantly original composition unlike anything ever heard? absolutely not. nonetheless, it's the best track on the record because it doesn't suffer from an overly catchy head nodding chorus. they definately could have improved on the track, however, by extending the last few minutes out significantly further; we're talking some kind of acid trip involving trent reznor, syd barret and paul mccartney here...very interesting, creative and 'noisy and amelodic'.

We then jump into eriatarka, another track that contains little more than a vocal melody pasted over 'the classic mars volta sound', interspersed with some very nice (albeit too short!) floydy guitar interludes. the melody in this track is so strong that it could have been a number one hit if they cut down the length and removed the instrumental interludes; the instrumental interludes are so strong that this could have been a brilliant piece of symphonic prog had they extended the track to 12 minutes instead of 6. is the record beginning to make more sense yet? it's not developed enough to be a brilliant piece of progressive art, although i understand the tendency of people to crown it as such given the current deficit of interesting and forward looking music available today. yet, it's just too creative and abstract to be effective chart topping pop music. this track again ends with a splattering of very nice electronic effects work that i wish they would have extended further outwards....

We now arrive at the centrepiece of the record, the twelve and a half minute cicatriz esp. i get my wish here - they extended the track rather significantly. once again, we have a massive, hugely catchy post-cobain chorus (the catchiest on the record) that takes more away from the track then it gives, and we also have several minute and a half long verses that further cement 'the classic mars volta sound' as such, but that consist of little more than a two note bassline, some standard effects work and a very eager blixler pushed to the very front of the mix....

This is the kind of track that's a lot of fun to watch somebody do live but isn't so much fun to sit at home and listen to......until about the 3 and a half minute mark, anyways. we are at this point treated to about 7.5 minutes of purely instrumental jammage, which is butchered only by the editing incompetence of rick rubin, that slimy dude. nonetheless, if i could get an hour of underwater guitar effects in place of an hour of screaming blixler......man.....that'd be sweet....

When the bassline kicks in, we're brought back into reality - which is that the instrumental parts of this track are mindblowing (especially the homage to i mother earth that again occurs in this track, about when the drums and bass kick back in) but that the verses, choruses and vocals are pretty substandard post-hardcore. if i had my wish here, they'd drop the song around the instrumental altogether and only produce the instrumental. on the next record we got something even better - they wrote more creative song structures to house the reality escaping jamming.

The next track starts off very promising before the blixler dominated melody soaked chorus hits about 35 seconds in, and makes you gnarling your teeth and start throwing things at the guy. actually, it's not his fault, really, it's the mix mostly - it's all vocals, all melody. the verses have some nice jazzy guitar parts and the track ends with the insanity that was hoped for at the beginning of the track, but, overall, this song (which is called 'this apparatus must be unearthed') is a total abortion.

We then come to the hit single, which is.....a hit single. it's all melody, all vocals, lots of production. something like comfortably numb meets the goo goo dolls. there's another one of these things on the next record and a few on the third record. the singer proves here that he can fake a swan song for a dime - but can't they all? there's no reason to get irked with an obvious attempt at quick, easy income; this is the economic reality of the music industry in this age. SKIP.

The bulk of the last track, again, is 80% catchy post-cobain verse-chorus-verse and 20% interstellar overdrive....maybe a dash of strawberry fields. i again would rather they expanded on the 20% and cut down on the 80%. most would have rather they expanded on the 80% and cut down on the 20%. nonetheless, there is again a very enjoyable instrumental interlude that stands up WAY better than the otherwise bland house that the very nice jam lives in. again, blixler is mixed so high in the track that he makes you want to tell him to shut up.

Overall: if you like alternative rock, post-punk, grunge or 'nu-metal' then i'd highly recommend this record because it's a great introduction into more expansive types of music from a viewpoint that you can relate to. however, if you're a progressive rock fan - old and true - then i'd skip over this altogether until you've digested their second record and their first ep. if you go for this record first, you'll probably end up disillusioned with how commercial and poppy it is.

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