![]() For the first time in the band’s career, none of the album’s eight tracks breaks ten minutes in length. Whether they are exhausted from playing hour-long jam sessions on extended world tours or they wanted to give listeners a break is unclear, but the move is definitely noticeable, and adds to the overall presentation by making it easier to wrap one’s mind around the song structures. Of course, understandable has never been a positive description for The Mars Volta, and it can easily work against them, as on “With Twilight As My Guide”, a ballad which drags not only on dull instrumentation but on some of the worst lyrics ever penned by anyone ever. ![]() ![]() When the band is in full force, Bixler-Zavala screaming nonsensical nouns and verbs strung together through rambling spanglish is completely acceptable, even welcome. But when singing softly in a normal tone, lines like “My devil makes me dream/Like no other mortal dreams/With a blank eye corner” stick out, and not in a good way. Of course, when that’s your chorus, that just emphasizes the problem. Other than that, however, most of the problems with the album are minor. For those accustomed to the band’s signature sound, it is a mostly pleasant experience.
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