Released January 27th on Stones Throw Records
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is better known for being the lead guitarist in experimental prog rock band The Mars Volta, who are themselves known for being a bit weird (experiments with ouija boards have been well documented) and having songs that can last anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. Which is probably why you don’t hear them on the radio. For those who haven’t heard of this band, I’ll try and break it down in layman’s terms. They make a hell of a racket in free-form songs, often with lyrics that don’t seem to make any sense at all, with song and album titles that also will leave you scratching your head.
Examples, I hear you cry? De-loused In The Comatorium is their first (and probably best) album, with such song titles as Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt, Cicatriz ESP and Televators, a song about a friend who committed suicide, with such lyrics as “Riddle me this/Three half eaten corneas/Who hit the aureole/Stalk the ground.” Also, song Asilos Magdalena is what you would expect to hear if you were Spanish and ended up in Hell with Satan singing to you while Lucifer plucked a guitar at his side. Sinister doesn’t cover it.
Many people’s problem with The Mars Volta, who Omar is chief songwriter for, is that their songs are too inaccessible. You can’t sit down and have a quick blast of one of their elbums, because you will be there for a good hour. They don’t do 3 minute radio friendly songs that you can listen to, enjoy and move on with your day. They are a band that need you to invest time in. You don’t have to get ‘it,’ whatever it is.
So it’s interesting to see what a solo album, Old Money, from the driving force behind this band will provide. Actually, what we have here is more of the same; Sinister sounding guitars played with drug-fuelled precision and influence such as on Population Councils Wet Dream; the odd slower but still creepy song sandwiched in with distorted vocals (the album is almost fully instrumental), which on this album is How To Bill The Bilderberg Group.
The opening track, The Power Of Myth, just sums it all up though – this is a Mars Volta album, just without the lyrics, and that leaves me just a little disappointed. Yes the musicianship is as good as it has always been, and there are still songs that I will gladly listen to again (the title track is easily one of Omar’s best), but this album doesn’t seem to have it (again, whatever it is). Maybe these songs are missing the lyrics of Cedric Bixler-Zavala, or maybe it’s something else entirely – that a man who has made a sound unlike any other just doesn’t know how to make anything else. And that, ultimately, is the biggest disappointment of all.
Posted In Album Reviews, Jan 29 2009.
Words - Paul