CALIBRATION (IS PUSHING LUCK AND KEY TOO FAR)

As much as The Mars Volta makes me salivate all over the place, the band's mastermind has consistently kept my mouth dry with his solo releases. Granted, this is not meant to be The Volta and shouldn't be criticized for not being like them, but that is not what I do! Omar just has a problem where he has way to many ideas to handle (not too different from my own band), but instead of just putting all of the good ones towards his primary band and trashing the rest, or letting them sit for a bit and eventually he'll figure out something great to do with them, he decides to record everything else and release it under his name. Sure, a couple of his releases are pretty enjoyable. However, I can't help but get the feeling that the man is just using the fame of The Mars Volta to sell these scrapes of ideas he has sitting around and make some extra money, because artistic integrity would have suppressed half of these releases. Maybe some people really do see value in these releases (they're brainwashed I tell you!), but with Calibration, I don't see how the yeasayers of before can continue saying "yea," which to the best of my recollection is only used regularly in Congress, so you should get with the times people. On a side note, "yea" how I spell "yeah" on AIM and I spell "yea" "yay;" it's a habit I haven't broken, but it's not like I am saying "yea" and meaning "yea" like those yeasayers I was just talking about.

Anyway, this album is a bunch of mediocre ideas that sound like ones from his other albums. Unfortunately, being such a slobber-soaked Volta fan, I feel like I should check out Omar's solo albums, and I can't say that I listen to any of them anymore (even the good ones). But this album isn't a travesty, and I'm sure somebody will still say "yea" to this. Maybe if this is your first Omar solo album you might get something out of it, but for those who have heard one or two or more already, there is nothing to hear on this one.