THE MARS VOLTA

'Tis a good day, the sun is shining, the birds are whispering, and everything is alright. I think it is prime time for another very popular band to come back and make the day even better, I mean Porcupine Tree did it with Closure / Continuation, why not another one? Maybe another band with a heavy sound and a very experimental attitude to their music?maybe a band that tries new things every time they release something. Maybe?maybe we need a little bit of The Mars Volta in our lives right now.

The Mars Volta is a really big name in the progressive rock community, like really, really big. Honed in by two members of At The Drive-In, the harmonical falsetto emperor Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and the technical mad scientist who seems to never age a day Omar Rodríguez-López. These two legends have been in the experimental music business since even with their early works in At The Drive-In, especially with the highly influential, Relationship Of Command. Their work together paved the way for that alternative/punk brand of modern Prog that I love. Where bands such as The Flower Kings made the green road of retro progressive rock, Marillion made the neo-progressive rock ladder, and the acts of Porcupine Tree and many others shaped the more contemporary side of progressive rock, this band right here made a style that I can only deem as progressive punk. They and Coheed and Cambria made progressive rock a lot more mainstream by their combination of alternative rock, punk, and post-hardcore to bridge the gap in a way between the very symphonically heads of progressive rock, and the more rebellious heads of more punk rock kids. So far they have released 7 albums, not counting the 2021 Deloused demos album and all of which are consistently great. Not a single album from this band dissatisfied me or left me in the dark. All of them, from Deloused In The Comatorium to Nocturniquet has been as solid as a platypus stuck in a well. However, after Nocturniquet they disappeared, well not quite. They worked ok other projects, like Omar's solo work, and even At The Drive-In again for the album In ? ter a ? li ? a. They were still up to date with the prog sphere, but for then The Mars Volta was in a state of uncertain retirement.

However, now they came back, after pretty much ten years, however, it was without reason though. So in 2012 or 2013, Cedric joined the Church of Scientology, which resulted in Omar and him growing a bit apart. However, the church was very bad, especially towards Cedric's wife, Chrissie. I will not get into the big details, but to put it short this album was a result of Cedric's moving away from the church due to their very harmful, and very illegal activities, especially with the actor Danny Masterson. As a result, the songwriting became a lot less abstracted into a dungeon and more straightforward and personal. There was also Omar, who had a hand in the making of this album. He decided to make this one of their most revolutionary albums yet, and to make it revolutionary they wanted to step away from the progressive rock sounds they had on their previous records, and while not necessarily abandoning all that they were, they did bring out a new, blank canvas. This new direction resulted in their most pop-centric albums to date, not because they were selling out, but rather experimenting with a brand new sound. They are still experimental, but where on other records they were experimental in the vein of big long songs, they instead hunkered down a bit and experimented with a genre they had barely done before. To be honest, I gotta say, I like this new direction the band puts forth.

This new direction is exemplified with the first track, Blacklight Shine, where instead of this big proggy sound, we have a bomba sound in place with very rhythmic and soft hand drums, with a clear-cut focus on creating a new type of lively atmosphere. The Mars Volta has and always will be a band that embraces their Spanish roots, so this track does give us that very culturally fun music that I think was slightly missing from the band's older works. Oh man, this song is just a fun time, how this song makes me sway my hips, especially at the part where Cedric sings in Spanish. It is honestly a great opener for this album, and even after 10 years, and the genre shift, they sound like The Mars Volta. Progressive rock or not, you cannot deny this song is just a bundle of fun.

Like I said before they are still experimental, even in a pop context with a genre shift from bomba to a more electronic, almost trip-hop sound with Graveyard Love. It is very keyboard driven, with lush sounds creating a more enriched and bountiful feeling. It is also pretty rhythmic, heck I'd say the entire album is rhythmic in a sense. They put a lot of emphasis on the drums here, experimenting with all types of new sounds to create one of the most unique Mars Volta experiences to this day. I gotta say, it does work in their favor.

This is even more obvious with the song Shore Story, which continues that lush sound Graveyard Love proposed and times it by 2. Super atmospheric, and almost Coldplay-like, but obviously with a Spanish American, and much better frankly tone. You can tell they knew what they wanted to make, and with this song, I just wanna groove with them. No matter what The Mars Volta delivers. This also applies to Blank Condolences, but note I will be skipping some tracks, not because they are bad or anything no track here is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but because some tracks sound very similar to one another, and also because reviewing 14 songs it would make this review way too long and repetitive.

Now that I got that out of the way, we step into a more dream pop landscape with Vigil. I noticed a lot of people do not really like this song, and I just do not see why they would hate this, because this is a very pretty song. This is where I think Cedric's vocals peak on this album. His voice ages like the finest wine in the world, and here he is so soft but so filled with passion that I feel so rejuvenated. His dormouse-like falsettos just bleed into me and make me feel good. That is the whole point of pop music right, to make someone feel good? Unlike the very lame single cellular pop music that acts like Ed Sheeran or Drake gives, we get to pop that doesn't get in the way of the band's greatness and instead solidifies their greatness even more.

However Vigil is not the best song off the album, that title goes to Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon. I am learning Spanish, and so a bit of the cultural impact that language has on the world so this song felt very right in the mood that I get with Spanish culture. This very fun-filled, salsa music with the fun drums, pianos, and Omar's guitar just makes me want to have a good time. It is danceable but in the best way possible. Like Blacklight Shine, my hips seem to move when this song plays, and it all feels so right.

Skipping a bit ahead to Flash Burns From Flashbacks, we sort of getting a mix between the old Mars Volta and this new canvas the band brought out. While it is still poppy, I do feel that Mars Volta's sound from Deloused or Amputechture slowly creeps in through those equivocal guitar tones. This got me thinking of how far the band has come from their first EP to this album. It is almost magical how well they stood the test of time and came back stronger than ever.

We get more of those cultural Spanish sounds with Palm Full Of Crux, with horns that remind me of hearing some Spanish jazz a little while back when I was exploring music more. This song does make me nostalgic in that factor, and it does explore this pop territory the band has going on here. It does make this album have a lot of solid ground to it. However, after this point, the album does dip a tad. Not to the point where it becomes unenjoyable, but with an album with a very big track length and with songs being 2-4 minutes long, you will eventually get some songs that lose the magic a bit. It is a thing that every genre experiences, from jazz, to no wave, to progressive rock. Every genre can experience this, so I do not fault the band for this.

I think after Palm Full Of Crux, right now the next strongest song in this lineup has become Equus 3. The use of electronic sounds and newer keyboards leave this song with a good feeling of very sonically enriched directions. You can feel the weight each beat has, and each press on the keys. Furthermore, the use of these electronic musical instruments gives this a different feeling from the rest of the songs. This band knows how to make distinct songs, and this is a good example of that.

I think the album closes very nicely with The Requisition. It is not my favorite song by any means but it does end the album on a high note. We get that mix of the old and new again, especially with Omar's still very well-done guitar playing skills having this very crisp sound, playing in some minor chords, which I adore. I can tell after hearing this album a few times throughout the day that we are still in good hands, and no matter what I feel like they can work things out with this new pop direction. I am a progressive rock fan first and foremost, but I know good music when I hear it, and this right here is some excellent music.

Some may consider this the band's worst effort, but I will say this. Even The Mars Volta's worst could be another band's best. Their sound, and styles, no matter if they are in the Prog boat or not still, will always be high quality. It is like eating a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. No matter the cheese (Unless it's pepper jack then it can go die.) or what brand of ham you get, it'll still taste really good. The Mars Volta is one of my favorite bands, and I am as excited as everyone else to see this duo come back after a hot minute. They do show that quality will always be over quantity, no matter how long, short, Prog, or pop their songs are.

Well this is surely one i never saw coming. THE MARS VOLTA is of course one of those millennial prog acts that pretty much introduced prog rock to a new generation with its brash musical mishmash on the band's lauded double one two punch debut releases "De-Loused In The Comatorium" and "Frances The Mute." These two albums took me quite a while to warm up to mostly due to Cedric Bixler-Zavala's abrasive vocal style but once i acclimated to the band's unique idiosyncrasies i have to admit that those two releases rank high in my favorite album releases of all time now. Along with Omar Rodriguez-López, Bixler-Zavala made an instant smash with their unique punk-infused style of progressive rock but after the second release it was pretty much diminishing returns with "Amputechture" all the way to 2021's too-abstract-for-its-own-good-and-lost-its way sound of "Noctourniquet."

Due to creative differences Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-López split ways after collaborating on the one-off Antemasque which revived the post-hardcore style of At The Drive-In which itself would find a second coming. After making a secret truce, the talk of reviving THE MARS VOLTA seemed inevitable as neither was setting the world on fire with solo and other projects. In 2019 the duo began working on what would become this self-titled album which signals a complete reinventing of the band by dropping all progressive rock influences and adopting a more indie pop approach. The album finally hit the scene in September 2022 with a less than thrilled fanbase waiting for the next "Frances The Mute" expressing its dissatisfaction.

Basically a completely different band from anything released before, this version of THE MARS VOLTA also features Marcellus Rodriguez-López, little brother of Omar, on keyboards, Eva Gardner, one of the founding members of the band back on bass, Willy Rodriguez Quiñones on drums and Leo Genovese, a famous Argentine jazz pianist, also joining in on keyboards. Notable for their albums' long playing times, this eponymous release keeps things on the shorter side just missing the 45 minute mark. Only two tracks are barely longer than four minutes and the overall stylistic shift is to emphasize instantly catchy melodic hooks accented by Caribbean rhythms and percussive styles along with indie rock guitars, bass and modern production techniques.

Honestly this was not something i was hoping for! Although a few albums after "Frances The Mute" are interesting, nothing comes close to the quality of the first two albums and in many ways this is an even loftier deep dive off the cliff of what made this band stand out from its nascency. Inherently there is nothing overtly awful about this album. The short digestible tracks are decently presented with Bixler-Zavala sounding less goofy in comparison. The mixing and production are excellent and fully up to date however what's mixing from this one is any connection to the soul. Unfortunately the band seems like it's striving to find commercial success in the context of achieving catchy pop hits on Spotify or something. All those wild unpredictable excursions into King Crimson prog and over the top psychedelic mindful.c.kery seem like a distant past although it's only been two decades since the band's debut.

When it comes down to it this just sounds like a completely different band with only Bixler-Zavala's vocal even remotely bringing any past efforts to mind. This is a fairly inoffensive, even bland set of 14 tracks that never really go anywhere or do anything beyond supporting the lyrical delivery that spends a great deal of time addressing the inconsistencies of the Church of Scientology which Bixler-Zavala's family had apparently tortured him with. For some sort of anonymous indie pop album, this is pretty decent for a listening experience but the whole thing seems like a mere shadow of the greatness this band once achieved. It's like Genesis' self-titled album in comparison to its prog heyday only without the super pop hits. Any way you slice it, a nice warm album but rather forgettable with nothing really to sink your teeth into.