REVIEW: THE MARS VOLTA - THE MARS VOLTA

4/5

Life On Mars.

Mars attacks. Just when you thought it was all over, The Mars Volta return with one of the most cohesive albums of the year. And the name of this reunion after almost a decade? 'The Mars Volta'. 'Self-Titled' like the brackets of Mumford and Sons bandleader Marcus Mumford's first solo set. Released on the same New Music Friday where every new record born is bitten by the 'Pink Venom' of South Korean K-pop juggernaut BLACKPINK (no need to shout)! 

There may be less hair (look who's talkin') and salt and pepper in the beards, but this act that have worked with Chili Peppers like Frusciante and Flea and have recently courted Kanye collaboration rumours, want a slice of the pop cake too. Yet this band whose new album was monolith art installation teased like a 2001 'Space Odyssey' in gold code numerals outside Los Angeles' City Hall are still making quality music under their own control. Akin to art like the covers of their classics 'Frances The Mute' and their definitive debut ('De-Loused In The Comatorium'), amongst everything else from their perfect palette. The last being 2012's 'Noctourniquet'. 

El Passo, Texas' prog rock finest of members Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala shouldn't be slept on. Even if they are amongst the most underrated legends of our generation or those gone, fixing on the psychedelia of MGMT and Empire Of The Sun. This seventh seal of red planet voltage is self-titled because it marks a clean-slate for the band previously gone for a decade. Much like Marcus solo Mumford emancipation of the same self-titled name. Spearheaded by the outstanding opening track and lead single 'Blacklight Shine'. Gleaming in the gold bars that sound like they were just mined at this moment. 

A beautiful 'Vigil' that will have fans in pilgrimage to their live shows singing by the cell phone like candlelight, and a 'Graveyard Love' (erm...) mark the shift of the rest of their worked singles. Taking on Scientology and taking inspiration from Bowie, Weller, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel's move to the mainstream. This album hits you like a sledgehammer or the drums of Genesis in the night. Can you feel it? 

They're coming. 'Shore Story' is not the same old sure story, singing, "If I were you, I wouldn't answer it at all/It's late November mornin' and I'll be comin' home/For a little while, I could shake them/But the trail I left was strong", as new foundations are laid. But it's these 'Blank Condolences' that you should really pay respects to. "Out here, buried beneath your tombs/My nails scrawl in blood/I will always haunt you/Out here, beneath the things you do/Exhumin' ruins/If you audit all the omens/Broken fevers out of time/Wouldn't you want to have closure?/When your blindness becomes home." Has a chorus ever compelled you so much? Pure poetry! Mainstream, my condolences. 

At their most beautiful, 'Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon' is a love letter to the shadows that hide behind the heart. "Don't block the view/Silhouette of a silhouette/Time-stamped/ No, nothing of proof/Silhouette dice/Silhouette of his control/Has no one considered he'd run?/Stole your breath when he's got it/This is a silhouette of his control." Now, make sure your own prescription is more than just rose tints. In this 'Curela' world" If the walls they build come tumblin', tumblin' down/And the love you failed to comfort comes back 'round/At last, I found my moment to fall apart."

On 'Flash Burns From Flashbacks' they really look into the light with lyrics like, "The burning film in your projector/Ulcerous amnesia/Memories, they're not so fond of my mind." As the reels tell a different story in nuance than the niceties of nostalgia. Holding 'A Palm Full Of Crux' gifts us with one of the set's best. But there is 'No Case Gain' that sings, "Someone's out on the wing of a plane/And she's headed for a storm/Clap back, reach my jugular/Are you now succumbin' to the silver guilt?/You pad my cell." Straight, perfect prose to the jacket. Call me crazy. 

Before your 'Collapsible Shoulders' forlornly fall into the formidable finale of 'The Requestion', 'Equus 3' will show you no equal. But it's the 'Tourmaline' that is exactly that. A gemstone mining minerals and words that bond, such as, "If the catatonic walls close in on the hem again/Pull the tether down for me/I’ve been haemorrhaging thе sins of these lessеr men/In cracks I didn't make/Until the lights, they flicker out/And a voice asks, "Are you safe in this cavern?"/Deep in the fathom span of outstretched arms/Of outstretched arms", reaching out to us in the hope that we will hold on. And we have. For a decade now. Ever since Bixler-Zavala tweeted in 2013, "I can’t sit here and pretend any more. I no longer am a member of Mars Volta." Hoping it wasn't true. Well, it may have been back then, but it's not any more for these Martians. And as Voltorn forms once more, there's life on this seventh rock from the fourth one from the sun. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Blacklight Shine', 'Vigil', 'The Requisition'.