BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: THE BEST

Here's what you've all been waiting for (maybe) - My list of the Top 10 Best Musicals and Broadway songs!

SATURDAY: THE BEST OF THE BEST

Top Ten Best Songs:

10. Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening

9. Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins

8. Tonight - West Side Story

7. What You Own - Rent

6. Superstar - Jesus Christ Superstar

5. Do You Hear the People Sing? - Les Miserables

4. You Don't Know/I Am the One - Next To Normal

3. Oh What A Circus - Evita

2. Heaven on their Minds - Jesus Christ Superstar

1. One Day More - Les Miserables

Top Ten Best Musicals

10. Sweeney Todd*

9. The Sound Of Music

8. Evita

7. The Producers

6. Assassins

5. West Side Story

4. Next To Normal

3. Rent

2. Jesus Christ Superstar

1. Les Miserables

*So I've never seen the entire production of Sweeney Todd, and haven't listened to the full soundtrack in years, but the little bit that I have seen/heard recently warrants a listing at #10 on this list. So If I watched the whole thing, it would probably place higher, but for now, this is how it is going to be.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: INSPIRING SONGS

Due To Strange Schedule Stuff I'm Going to have to Post some of the intended material later than expected, but here to tide you over is a list of the most Inspiring Broadway songs- (remember, just like the over/underrated list, this list is in order of most inspiring, not best song. One Day More is clearly a better song than Climb Every Mountain, but Climb... is just so inspiring!)

Friday: Most Inspiring Songs

10. Tonight - West Side Story

9. Hosanna - Jesus Christ Superstar

8. Heart - Damn Yankees

7. Seasons of Love - Rent

6. Light - Next To Normal

5. A New Argentina - Evita

4. Everybody's Got The Right - Assassins

3. One Day More - Les Miserables

2. Do You Hear The People Sing? - Les Miserables

1. Climb Every Mountain - Sound of Music

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 5 LIST: MOST OVERRATED SHOWS

Wednesday: Your Show Sucks

Note: As much as it might seems so from the title, I am not trying to antagonize anyone with my selections for Overrated Shows, I'm simply taking the time to groan over the many shows that I think get talked about a little too much. Just because the show is on here doesn't mean it's a bad show, in fact it probably means it's a good show, it just means that I think it gets more credit than it deserves. With that said, I'm going to give some true classics a royal bashing! Please feel free to leave a comment if you disagree!

Top 5 Most Overrated Songs:

5. Oklahoma - Oklahoma

Since when does anyone care about Oklahoma? Nothing ever happened there, nothing ever will. Just a bunch of Farmers and Cowmen being real friendly like. Yet somehow, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote and song about it, and somehow, everyone except me liked it. Go Figure.

4. Maria - West Side Story

Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria. After hearing this song once in your life, you never again want to meet someone named Maria, I swear to god. If I have to hear that name one more time... Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad!

3. I Don't Know How to Love Him - Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ! This song is so overplayed! JCS is one of my favorite musicals of all time, with one of the best soundtracks out there, so explain to me how the most atrocious song on the album is the one that everybody knows? The only good thing that I Don't Know How To Love Him spawned was an absolutely heart rending reprise during "Judas' Death." The Song is still bad, but the due to the nature of the situation, the lyrics become that much more potent.

2. Tomorrow - Annie

There is no more oppressively redundant and obvious song in the world than "Tomorrow." Next time you sing along to this song, take a second to listen to the lyrics you are singing, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, You're only a day away." Well thank you captain obvious. I would never have guessed it. The most creative moment in this song is when she sings, "Betcha bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun," because, you know, there might be fog, or even rain, and if you live in Minnesota, you might even see snow!

1. Memory - Cats

I swear to god, the next time I hear some woman made up in feline fashion start crooning "Memory..... all alone in the moon light..." I think I will punch a whole through the wall. I (I think along with the rest of the world) am 100% sick of this song. And There Is a perfectly good reason for that- IT'S TERRIBLE.

Top 5 Most Overrated Musicals

6. Oklahoma

Okay so I know it says a top 5 list, but I hate this musical so much that I thought I'd extend the list just to add it. It's really not a bad musical at all, I just happen to hate it. Whether its that Southerner twang and locale, or the fact that it gets drooled all over upon as one the best Rodger's and Hammersteinn Musicals when it shouldn't even been in the same category as The Sound of Music and The King and I, I just can't stand it.

5. The Phantom of the Opera

Let me let you in on a little secret. I love Andrew Lloyd Webber (probably not a secret seeing how much I drool all over Jesus Christ Superstar), and I love The Phantom of the Opera, but lets be frank, it is completely and utterly overrated. The music is pretty much just OK (although a lot of it is really beautiful), most of it is overly simplistic, and in the true Webber fashion, terribly derivative (don't believe me? take a look at this). It's also dreadfully corny and predictable.

4. Annie

I guess my real question with Annie is, who actually cares? It's a feel good story about some bratty Orphan getting really lucky. The music is cutesy and stupid, and it's corny enough to make me spit (which is saying a lot, I love corny). Also, as a friend of mine pointed out, what the fuck kind of name is Daddy Warbucks?

3. Spring Awakening

If you really want a sense for why I think Spring Awakening isn't very good, take a read of the review I just posted. A lot people are calling it my generation's "Rent," and while I really enjoyed the show when I went with my '08 Urinetown cast, its really not nearly as good as Rent. It keeps getting thrown up in the Upper Class of rock musicals, and it just doesn't deserve to be there. The music is a unfortunate mix of some really fun songs and a lot of really really terrible songs, and who's really going to get excited about a romance involving someone named Wendla?

2. Singing in The Rain

Oh, Oh no! I'm treading on treacherous ground here! Singing in the Rain is a widely appreciated fan favorite, and seriously, who doesn't dance around rain flooded streets swinging their umbrella around while shouting, "I'mm siiiiinging in the rain!"? But truthfully, I've never liked this musical. It boring, overly cheerful, and relatively uneventful. Call me a square, an emo child or a manic depressive, but Singing in the Rain is not the masterpiece it is often made out to be. (On a completely different note, I quite love the song "Moses Supposes")

1. Cats

I dearly hope that none of you are surprised by Cats' showing on this list. I think someone once said that there are very few things in the world that could turn men off more than the musical Cats. But Seriously, its not just men. I can't think of a single human being wanting to see a bunch of other human beings running around on a stage dressed up as CATS. CATS. Really now. This what children's animated movies are for. People are not cats, they never will be and they never should be. Not to mention the music is really really really really bad. Like colossally bad.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 5 LIST: MOST UNDERRATED SHOWS

Tuesday: These Guys Deserve More Credit!

Note: These are not the most Unknown or least mainstream musicals or songs, but the most UNDERRATED songs and shows. So there are some really mainstream songs on here that just never quite get the credit they deserve. They are also not ranked by how good each song is, but by how Underrated that song is. So for instance I like Judas' Death more than Someone in a Tree, but Someone in a Tree is more severely under appreciated than Judas' death, so it is ranked higher on the list.

Top 5 Most Underrated Broadway Songs-

5. Sunrise, Sunset - Fiddler On The Roof

Sunrise, Sunset is one of the prettiest songs in Fiddler on the Roof, with gorgeous imagery and a strong emotive melodic line. Definitely one of the least recognized songs in the show, and definitely one of the best.

4. There's A Place For Us- West Side Story

Similar to Sunrise, Sunset, There's A Place for Us is one of the softer, slower songs in West Side Story, but lyrically and emotionally it is one of the most powerful. It speaks to the many themes in West Side Story and puts them all together in one beautiful and easily relatable song. not to mention it saved my ass in Music Theory Class, since I could always remember that the first two notes of the song were a minor 7th apart.

3. Judas' Death - Jesus Christ Superstar

Of all the songs in JCS, Judas' Death is the one song that manages to span the most emotional territory. It follows Judas through his anguish at having turned in Jesus up to his decision to kill himself. It solidifies Judas as a character that you can sympathize with just in time for him to kill himself. Possibly the most heartbreaking moment of the show is when a broken Judas reprises "I Don't Know How To Love Him" in the middle of this song. Since this song doesn't have the hooks of "Superstar" and doesn't have the original version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him," it almost never gets mentioned along with the best songs of the show, but it is clearly up there.

2. Someone In A Tree - Pacific Overatures

An absolutely lovely song from Pacific Overtures about "that guy" who happened to be eves dropping when something really big went down, and how important "that guy" can be. Much like the rest of this under the radar show, "Someone In A Tree" strikes the just the right balance between comedy, drama and meaningful commentary with just a sprinkle of sweet racism and stereotyping.

1. The Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins

The Ballad of Guiteau is probably the funniest, most entertaining and most frightening of all of the songs in Assassins, a musical full of songs written with the intent of scaring the crap out of you while making you fall out of your seat laughing. The Guiteau character is wonderfully eccentric, and his antics are in full display in this song, as he slowly makes his way to the Gallows, all the while trying to psych himself out by singing "I am going to the Lordy/I am so glad."

Top 5 Most Underrated Broadway Shows

5. Les Miserables

Okay so maybe Les Mis isn't classically underrated, and it certainly isn't unknown, but a Musical this good can never get enough praise, and I don't think enough people appreciate just how good Les Mis is. It is one of the greatest musicals of all time, and I get the feeling that it is almost never considered in that Upper Echelon. It Should Be.

4. Urinetown

Unlike Les Mis, Urinetown is not the best musical ever. In fact there are a lot of things I don't like about Urinetown, but after being in my High School's version of Urinetown, I have to say that there is a lot here. There is an almost astonishing abundance of great humor in the show, and I think that as far as comedies go, Urinetown should get a lot more recognition than it does.

3. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

AFTHOTWTTF (as I will now lovingly refer to it) is a truely top notch comedy that often seems to get overlooked in the scope of things. It's got that lovely Roman setting, a locale not often visited in musicals, it's got the absolutely irresistible Pseudolus character, and it has a bundle of terrific songs like "Comedy Tonight," and "Everybody Ought To Have Maid." AFTOTWTTF also kicks off what I would like to dub "The Lost Sondheim Trilogy" or "LST."

2. Pacific Overtures

Pacific Overtures is part two of the "Lost Sondheim Trilogy" and of the three, it is probably the least well known, and that's really a shame. It's a great show that continually strikes a great balance between humor and a serious, compelling story. Pacific Overtures remains dark and serious throughout while managing to constantly poke fun of itself and lighten the mood with Sondheim's great sense of irony and humor. It is a balanced and entertaining show, and it gives some really enlightening perspectives into the rarely discussed Westernization of Japan.

1. Assassins

If you can't tell by its placement on this list, I absolutely love Assassins (LST Part III). It is probably one the sickest, funniest, and darkest musicals out there, as it takes a sarcastic, ironic, and sympathetic look at the lives of the men and women who have tried to kill the President. You probably never thought that you'd feel sorry for John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald, but during Assassins, you will. The best part of Assassin though is the music and lyrics. I think that Assassins contains some of Sondheim's best Music, and the lyrics capture all of the eccentricities of each character while being bitingly sarcastic and clever. This show deserves to be considered alongside other Sondheim greats, like Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, but due to it's controversiality and sickly humor, it always seems to fall by the wayside.

Album Review: Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening

Music by Duncan Sheik

7.0

Released 2006

Rubric:

Musicianship: 7

Musical Cohesiveness: 9

Song Structure: 7

Lyrics: 6

Emotional Energy: 7

Emotional Landscape: 7

Album Structure: 8

Production: 8

Variety: 5

Lasting Impression: 6

It can be very tricky thing to review a musical soundtrack, since the quality of a musical is dependent on the performance that you see. For all intensive purposes, each time I review a musical I will attempt to exclusively review the SOUNDTRACK as if it were simply a very detailed concept album (ala Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or Ayreon’s “Into the Electric Castle”), and not the musical as a whole as I saw it onstage. In the case of some Musical Reviews, I may not have seen a performance at all (for example, Next to Normal) but I will critique the soundtrack based on how good the music is, how good the story is (an important piece of creating a concept album) and how well the music conveys or compliments the story. Spring Awakening serves as a good example of show with a noticeable difference between the actual show and the soundtrack. As a performance, Spring Awakening is Lively, Raunchy, Inappropriate and Moving. As a soundtrack, Spring Awakening is Slow, Uninspiring and ultimately boring. That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about the music, it’s just that I came out of the listening experience feeling completely unfulfilled.

The highlights of Spring Awakening are actually very good, but the problem is they are very few and far between. The two best tracks are the most upbeat tracks on the album and incidentally the two tracks with expletives in the name, “The Bitch of Living” and “Totally Fucked.” In the scope of things “The Bitch of Living” comes in as an early attention getter, attempting to give energy and personality to the soundtrack and it’s characters, and it does a very good job of this, introducing a number of the characters and describing the trials and tribulations of being a 19th century teenager. It captures the energy and spirit of each individual character in a simple verse chorus verse structure in which each teenager takes a few lines to describe his situation and the cast joins together for the energy packed chorus, “It’s the bitch of living/bitch, just the bitch...” This song also showcases the show’s best lyrics, as the teenagers sing about frustration and masturbation clearly enough to make you laugh, but vaguely enough to make you think, “We’ll work that silver magic/then we’ll aim it at the wall” and “It’s the bitch of living/with nothing but your hand.” The other song, “Totally Fucked” is the perfect 11 o’clock number, as it packs in just the right amount of punch and excitement just as everything else in the show is getting darker and darker. The song is relatively simple, but it is undeniably catchy, and you will find yourself singing along every time you hear it, no matter how hard you might resist. If you are a big broadway fan, you really need these two songs in your collection. The third really good song on the album is “The Dark I Know Well,” a frightening and powerful look at the horror and the consequences of sexual abuse. A couple of other stand out moments are the melodies in “Mama Who Bore Me” and “Song of Purple Summer,” and Moritz’s two big numbers “...And Then There Were None” and “Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind” are solid tracks, but none of those tracks quite separate themselves enough from the pack to make up from mediocrity that is the rest of the soundtrack.

One of Spring Awakening’s weakest points is its lyrics. Throughout much of the show, the lyrics are too vague to really convey what needs to be shown in a musical. For example, in “Mama Who Bore Me,” Wendla sings “Mama the Weeping, Mama the Angels,” yet at no point in the rest of the album (or show for that matter) is there any mention of who is crying and why, and what role “the angels” play in the show, and to make matters worse, that song opens the show, and it seems to hint to something that has happened or something that will reappear later in the show, but there is clarification! I suppose you could make the argument that it is a type of foreshadowing, but since there is no other clear foreshadowing in the show, it seems either a weak argument or at least a poorly implemented convention. The lyrics also go downhill when the writer attempts to write “like a teenager,” and more often than not, these sections just end up sounding awkward and trite. In some cases, the lyrics are just flat out bad, such as “I go up to my room, turn the stereo on/shoot up some you and the you of some song.” First of all, I understand that Duncan Shiek is trying to Update the story to be more applicable to modern audiences, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there were no stereos in the 19th century. Second, the last half of that line makes absolutely no sense, and it sounds absolutely atrocious when sung.

While the Lyrics are certainly aggravating, the reason that the Spring Awakening soundtrack doesn’t work is much more complicated. On the most basic level, it has to do with an Issue of variety. Almost every track occupies the same emotional and musical plane, and almost all of those songs are slow and boring. Spring Awakening attempts to use the songs as something of an “inner monologue” for the characters in order to give the audience a feeling for what’s happening in the character’s minds, but the lack of variety limits the emotions that are being conveyed and that the listener experiences. If I knew anything about teenagers (which I do) I would point out that teenagers are prone to a wide range of emotions that could only begin to be described by a diverse set of of music, ranging from soft calm songs to crazy angry fast songs, with everything in between showcased as well. Spring Awakening is a set of incredibly boring and unmemorable slow, introspective songs, with a very very sparse sprinkling of emotionally potent songs. It would be one thing if every slow song was actually good (see Coldplay, Stars) but most of the songs on Spring Awakening are simply bad. Most songs in themselves are repetitive and there are very few memorable hooks. Spring Awakening is also completely lacking in licks and riffs. If you listen to the best rock musicals and the best rock music, each song is almost always propelled by a memorable lick or riff. On Jesus Christ Superstar, classic songs such as “Heaven on Their Minds” and “Superstar” start out with exciting and mood setting instrumental lines. Many songs in Rent also have great riffs, as the creepy intro to the title song, and the super 80’s riff of “Out Tonight,” serve as perfect examples of how to weave a memorable riff into a song to make it stand out. Spring Awakening never does this, and as a result, there are almost no songs that leave any kind of lasting impression.

On the whole, Spring Awakening is a very weak soundtrack, and given the current asking price for soundtracks, you are probably best off saving your money, and just grabbing the best songs (Totally Fucked, The Bitch of Living and The Dark I Know Well) because honestly those songs are awesome, but the rest of the album simply isn’t worth it.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: COMEDIES

Disclaimer: All of the Musicals and songs that I will include on these lists are from shows that I have seen or for which I know the soundtrack very well. I will not put on musicals or songs that I do not know. This probably means that there will be some glaring omissions in these lists, but they are MY best of Lists, so that's what they will be. (Also, these are all based on the work of the musical, how good the score/story/dialogue is, and not on individual performances that I have or haven't seen)

Monday: Comedies

Note: For the purpose of this list, a "comedy" will be any funny (dark comedies included) or happy musical. Remember, in Shakespeare it was a comedy just as long as everybody got married at the end!

Top Ten Funniest Songs:

10. Please Hello - Pacific Overtures

9. Those Were the Good Old Days - Damn Yankees

8. Brush Up Your Shakespeare - Kiss Me Kate

7. Privilege to Pee - Urinetown

6. King Of Broadway- The Producers

5. Comedy Tonight - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

4. Everybody Ought To Have Maid- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

3. Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins

2. Agony - Into the Woods

1. Springtime For Hitler - The Producers

Top 10 Comedies

10. Urinetown

9. Spamalot

8. Pacific Overtures

7. Damn Yankees

6. Into The Woods

5. Kiss Me Kate

4. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

3. Guys and Dolls

2. Assassins

1. The Producers

BROADWAY WEEK!

Welcome to Broadway Week, also know as the Week of Musicals! This week I will be attempting to review the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed new Musicals, "Spring Awakening" and "Next to Normal." Spring Awakening won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2007 and Next to Normal won for Best Original Score in 2009.

Watch as I tear them apart for this very exciting Edition of "Through the Wall"* reviews.

As Part of Broadway Week, I also will be running a series of "Best (or worst) of Lists" for Broadway Shows (with the aim of doing one each day for the next five days). In the Interest of suspense, I will present the lists in descending order, from number ten to number one.

*(If anyone has a better idea for a name for the blog, let me know!)

2009 Recommendations

Thought I might take a few moments to look back at the Music that's been released so far this year, and give my Recommendations for '09.

Buy These Now:

Crack the Skye - Mastodon

Mastodon has really outdone themselves with Crack the Skye, a Prog Metal masterpiece about an astral traveling quadriplegic, Rasputin and lots and lots of Acid. Crack the Skye has singlehandedly changed the way I listen to metal. If you do not have this album, you should go find it, right away.

Next to Normal - Written by Tom Kitt

I found out about Next to Normal when a friend of mine showed me the performance of "You Don't Know/I Am The One" at the Tony Awards and I was completely blown away. I had shivers down my back throughout the entire performance, and much to my surprise and excitement, the rest of the soundtrack was equally strong and moving. Next to Normal is the best Rock Musical since Rent, you really don't want to miss out on this one.

Worth Your Time:

The Exited Door - Kirk Hamilton

The Exited Door is possibly one of the most entertaining and creative albums of 09. Kirk Hamilton weaves intricate and appealing melodies together to create a wonderfully varied track list and brings each song to life with his legion of talented San Francisco musicians. Kirk utilizes strings, horns, guitars and keyboards to create what he calls "Diversely Orchestrated Pop." Whatever it is, it's awesome! Give This album a chance, you wont regret it.

21st Century Breakdown - Green Day

The sequel to American Idiot is about as ambitious as Green Day gets (which isn't really saying much, but oh well). It contains some of the best songs Green Day has ever written (see 21st Century Breakdown, Before the Lobotomy and 21 Guns), but it also has some songs that are upsettingly derivative, including a couple of songs that take direct melodic lines and structures from earlier Green Day songs.

Octahedron - The Mars Volta

Octahedron A fun, entertaining romp through the heads of Cedric and Omar, but it lacks the energy and punch of some of their earlier work. Somehow it's just not pretentious enough... (For more information read my full review of Octahedron)

Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater

Dream Theater remains constant with Black Clouds and Silver Linings, another strong Prog Rock release. Dream Theater is at their best when they embrace all of their Progressive Tendencies, but the music quickly gets dull when they start to forget that they aren't just a straight up Pop-Metal band. BC&SL also sometimes leans a little to heavily on Dream Theater's influences, particularly on "Best of Times," which at times feels like a direct copy of Rush's Spirit of the Radio. "Court Of Tuscany" is the album's best track, and fortunately, its AWESOME.

Consider It:

Swoon- The Silversun Pickups

Fuzz , Fuzz, Fuzz. That's what Swoon is. A whole lot of Fuzz. It's basically a Carbon Copy of the bands first album, Carnavas, so if you liked that album, you'll probably like Swoon, or maybe you'll just be annoyed at how little the band has grown over the last few years. The music's not bad, it just never surprises you or really gets into your head.

Don't Bother:

Metamorphosis- Papa Roach

Uhhh.... Papa Roach has never been a great band, but I really liked "Getting Away With Murder." Unfortunately, the band's music has been going downhill since then. "The Paramour Sessions" wasn't horrid, but it lost a lot of the edge and energy that made "Murder" so appealing. It seems that that energy has completely disappeared on Metamorphosis. And the Lyrics are atrocious.

The Lonely Road - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

To be honest I can't really say much about this album, since I turned it off after the four minutes and fifteen seconds of complete hell that was the song "Believe." It is without a doubt one of the worst songs I have ever heard in my life.

It's Blitz - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have never really captured my attention, but I always thought that they wrote decent songs. Unfortunately, This is not the case on It's Blitz. Each song on this album is a mess, as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs stray a bit to far into the Art Rock realm that they love so much, and they left the "rock music" part behind.

Stay Tuned:

Untitled - My Chemical Romance

If you were living under a rock in 2006, you might have missed My Chemical Romance's over the top Epic, "The Black Parade," but chances are you've probably heard of it, and probably have a very strong opinion about it. I happened to be in the "loved it" camp, but even if you don't like MCR, you have to admit, they write strong music, and they have improved drastically over each of their first Three Albums. They are apparently going back to their roots as a real "American Rock and Roll Band," and what they mean by that I don't think anyone really knows, but knowing MCR, it will probably be awesome.

Resistance - Muse

Its not a secret that Muse is a terrific band. Black Holes and Revelations was totally awesome and I don't really know many people that don't like their classics like "Time is Running Out" and "Plug in Baby." Chances are a new Muse album will not disappoint.

Beggars - Thrice

I really don't care what you say, Thrice Rocks. They have experimented with a whole range of musical genres, playing a lot of "Emo" Rock, sampling some prog, some metal, some electronic, but the really fun thing about Thrice is that they try something new with each album, and they always combine all of their influences to create something that sounds uniquely, Thrice. Beggars looks to be no different, you really don't want to miss this one. Not to mention, Thrice is a group of absolutely great, hard working guys who spend lots of time advocating different charities and helping others. They also do all of their own studio work. Thrice is a true creative band, doing exactly what they want to do.

Album Review: Octahedron

Octahedron

The Mars Volta

7.8

Released June 2009

Rubric

Musicianship: 8

Musical Cohesivness: 8

Song Structure: 7

Lyrics: 8

Emotional Energy: 7

Emotional Landscape: 10

Album Structure: 9

Production: 8

Variety: 7

Lasting Impression: 6

Have you ever listened to an album that seemed like it was made just so that it would look good with the Itunes Visualizer?* We’ll I think I have. The Mars Volta’s Octahedron is so atmospheric, so subtle (yes you heard me, Subtle) that it almost demands to be listened to with that gimmicky visualizer laying the scene. Octahedron is a slow album (certainly in comparison with the bands first four albums) and it shows a deeply melodic and surprisingly sensitive side of the Mars Volta. For those of you who have been on board since De-Loused in the Comatorium, imagine an album full of Televators type songs. For those of you unfamiliar with Cedric and Omar’s earlier works, Imagine the atmospherics and soft textures of Pink Floyd, only not quite as well written. (If you are unfamiliar with Pink Floyd, please stop reading this right now and take this time to educate yourself.) The Album starts of on an entirely positive note, with the catchy, creeping and ultimately gripping “Since We’ve Been Wrong.” The song, like much of the album, has a strong emphasis on Cedric’s strong vocal presence and clever lyrics, and is complimented by Omar’s simple (yes read it, simple), yet effective guitar riffs and melodies. The song starts with an synthesizer laden atmospheric intro very reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” which slowly builds into a beautiful dual guitar line, and throughout the song, the band works from this solid starting point, slowly adding new instruments and layers to set the scene. The song reaches its peak when the drummer enters (rather forcefully) towards the three quarter mark, adding a whole new level of excitement, energy and emotion to the song. From that point The Mars Volta brings the song back through another time around its intricately woven chorus and gently sets you down. All in all it’s probably the strongest all around track on the album, and it sets a mood for the rest of the album.

The Mars Volta does a very good job of creating a cohesive feel Octahedron, but what the album has in atmosphere, it lacks in variety. Much of the album feels somewhat same-y, with many tracks following a similar structure and too often getting bogged down in murky, repetitive melodic lines that never quite seem to go anywhere. Much of the album also stays down in the slow, dreamy atmospherics that make up the first track. Two of the album’s more driving tracks, “Teflon” and “Desperate Graves” serve as a welcome break from the overall feel of the album, and are easily two of the most memorable tracks on the album. The third “heavy” track, “Cotopaxi,” harkens back to earlier Volta albums, utilizing odd meter and strong riffs to propel the song forward, it failed however, to leave any kind of real impression. Teflon, on the other hand, is an exciting track highlighted by a memorable chorus, with one of the albums most intriguing lyrical hooks: “Let the wheels burn, Let the wheels burn, Stack the tires to the neck, with the body inside.” This lyric represents what makes Cedric’s lyrics so strong, they are vague and crypticbut they manage to paint a dark and often frightening picture. As with most Mars Volta work, Octahedron’s lyrics can often drift into the realm of just a little too strange, and it often becomes a struggle get any kind of a grip on what Cedric is trying to say. Unfortunately, the albums production doesn’t help this along very much all, as Cedric’s voice sometimes gets lost in the rush of instruments and atmospherics, and even when it does emerge above the rest of the track, his voice is so overloaded with effects and production tricks that it can often be hard to make out what he’s saying. Despite my gripes about the production work around the vocals, Omar does a terrific job of using to production to supplement and augment the album’s mood and atmosphere.

From the beginning of the album until the end, you are sucked into a whole new world, intricately and meticulously created for your listening pleasure. Whether or not you will enjoy your stay is still very much up in the air. Octahedron contains some of The Mars Volta’s strongest melodies (See the absolutely gem that makes up the Chorus of “Copernicus”), and it is arguably one of their most consistent efforts, both musically and atmospherically, but as I listen to the album I can’t help but feel that something is missing. There is just a certain energy that isn’t there. There is a certain lack of excitement and unpredictability that made some of their earlier work (particularly De-Loused in the Comatorium) so much fun to listen to. That kind of experimentation also made much of their second release, Frances the Mute, unlistenable, yet at the end of Octahedron, I found myself longing for something just a little more... pretentious. It’s not that all bands have to be quite as obscenely pretentious in their presentation as earlier Mars Volta was, but certain bands thrive off of that experimental showing off, and the Mars Volta is one of those bands. Octahedron, is a solid album, and worth picking up if you are of a mood to be absorbed into a world different than your own, but in the end it failed to leave a lasting impression.

* (For those of you who aren’t bored enough to know what the Itunes Visualizer is, it’s the funny swirly psychedelic Visualizer that supposedly “moves” to your music. Check it out next time you find yourself staring at your computer hoping it can magically solve all of your problems).