Goliath came on right after this when I listened this morning and it definitely made me miss the energy. The drumming is always a standout on TMV releases and that’s been missing for me since Pridgen left (Jon is still my fav, DP is super talented but just didn’t scratch the itch on Noct).
I really liked Noct, so it's not like I'm stuck in an 18 minute prog mindset and just want DeLoused II... but these singles are 1/3 for me. The phrase "money grab" is floating around in my head already, given the history of this Clouds Hill label and the $23 CDs that just went up for preorder, but we'll see.
I’m surprised cause Omar released a three album box set through them and I could swear it was maybe $60. I’d wait for the standard editions to get posted before thinking it’s a money grab though.
Taken from Reddit. Johan did a Q&A (so take with a grain of salt) He says the tour lineup will blow our minds. Omar solo reissue box set in the works. NEW solo Omar will be coming out soon. They won’t just play new songs live. They will pro-shoot a couple of the fall concerts. They won’t be putting out any unreleased TMV material. Album is under an hour. Selling posters and exclusive tour merch when they hit the road. More shows in Mexico and Europe.
I saw a pitchfork article said only two songs are over 4 minutes long. Guessing everything clocks in under 5 minutes. Which is fine but I wouldn’t mind an in absentia length banger
There is already a standard version up for pre order in Germany: https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/the-mars-volta-the-mars-volta-936515 It is €10 cheaper.
Vigil is so groovy, I'm just so in love with them doing anything no one would expect and it working, most anticipated album of the year
Yeah. I’m fine with people having opinions on what Volta should sound like but I’ve always thought their mission statement was something along the lines of “fuck you, here’s something completely different from anything we’ve done before” I mean deloused was basically a punk album and Frances completely abandoned that notion
I… don’t really agree with that. Frances feels like a natural step forward from Deloused to me, obviously into stranger territory but it’s not a departure. Actually all their records feel that way except for the shift from Bedlam to Octahedron. They definitely have a classic Volta sound to them no matter what direction they take, even the new singles.
Sure. There’s a shift in each one and they can be traced. Octa can be traced into noctourniquet and the new stuff feels like a natural transition from the sounds on Nocto. Omar’s most recent output kinda makes sense too. Especially the clouds hills tapes.
For sure. Of course that’s also not to say they aren’t doing new and interesting stuff with each new album. They are definitely the kind of band who never makes the same record twice. I do have my concerns with them cutting all the experimental direction out with this new one. I don’t want them to dilute their sound but it sounds like that might be the case. Their resistance to conventional song structure and willingness to go beyond expectation—to go on these long jammy detours—is what draws me to them, but I guess if they’re able to concentrate that and accomplish the same feeling in 3-4 min songs then I’ll still be happy.
I would love some jammier songs. Noctourniquet got really fleshed out when they played it live so I hope we see the same here.
Overall, for me, it's just about the music and in this case I think the music is really fantastic so far. I don't really care if it's The Mars Volta, Antemasque, Blippity Boppity, I truly think these songs are fucking cool. We can debate about what "The Mars Volta" should sound like, but who cares. If you like it, awesome. If you don't, that's also awesome
speaking of disagreeing with you, I don't think I've seen the latest brackets, might have missed them, gonna go check
I think the first two singles for this have been awesome. Like as much as I love FTM/Ampu era TMV, they haven’t reallyyyy pulled off that energy since and these songs arguably sound tighter than most of their output since those records! They’re also still pretty weird! I don’t like Vigil quite as much but it’s fine; the Radiohead-esque outro is very cool.