About The Mars Volta and how I listen to music

Okay, so after reading this excellent and wildly irrelevant article, getting slightly drunk, I thought I’d (very vaguely) apply the 5-act concept on writing a short music essay.


ACT I: Setting, or How I Listen to Music
I don’t listen to music all the time. I don’t wear headphones 24/7 like those cool kids in elementary school do.

That being said, I listen to it a lot, and almost always in full albums, from start to finish. Sort of like movies, I consider an album as the whole, actual, piece, where every song can be regarded as a single, long scene or even a substory in the main discussion.

The three bands/artists I’ve listened to the most in this manner (there are more) would be Amon Tobin, The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Mars Volta. See, by listening to music in this way you can quickly understand and follow the progression of an artist’s style and approach to creating what they do. One album may have a more pop-styled approach, while another is more raw and absolute of character. This does not necessarily mean that one is better than the other, just that they are different and can be listened to on other terms.

I do occasionally listen to singles, even from albums that I appreciate as a whole, but those songs actually tend to lose the climactic release of tension without 20-30 minutes of building up to them.


ACT II: Continuation of Act I, or How I’ve Listened To The Mars Volta as a Band
The Mars Volta create the most hard-to-listen-to music I’ve ever encountered.

I mean, it’s not especially heavy, nor dramatic, nor unmelodic. It’s just ridiculously complex and full of stuff going on. The first time I heard them, they were so overwhelming, chaotic, that I simply became frustrated due to the fact that I could not follow what was happening. Like a David Lynch movie. That wasn’t a reason for me to disregard them, I just never got around to listen to them.

Until I actually did. I gave Amputechture (the whole album) about 5 playthroughs until I really started appreciating the structure, melodies and harmonies. And then I listen to it 10 times more, appreciating the details and stuff I missed. Which lead me to more of their music, and while I’ve only listened to their first three albums, De-Loused in the Comatorium is the one I’ve spent most time with recently.

I’d claim it to be the most pop-inspired one, with more pop-rock influence rather than latin jazz-fusion rock stylings they’ve verged into later.


ACT III: Complication of Act II, or How I Feel When I Listen to a Specific Album
When listening to De-Loused in the Comatorium, I, after some time began to find which melodies and segments belonged to which song, and the pacing running between them.

My most definite favourite at the moment is “This Apparatus Must be Unearthed”, or (in my opinion) the absolute climax of the album which, after a slow burn from the ending of the previous song, goes totally super-intense in the chorus and fills me with music-orgasmic energy. It’s clean, I promise.

Still, the track is crazy awesome and once I get to it, it feels like I can go infinite repeat for way too long.


ACT IV: Reflection of Act III or The Issue of This Track and Album as a Whole
But I can’t jump into “This Apparatus Must be Unearthed” immediately.

It feels to pop-ish and lacking of substance, bombastic and over-the-top. On it’s own, it’s simply not a really good song. I can’t feel the ridiculous energy and pulse of it, the chorus begins too quickly and ends with a meh. It’s disappointing really, considering how I usually enjoy it so much when listening to the whole album, or even beginning with the 12-minute piece before it.

I only really like it in the context of the rest of the album.


ACT V: The Actual Point or Why I Listen To Music This Way
This is not true of all music, but in the case of The Mars Volta, albums hold an excellent, general, structure which includes the pacing building up to the subsequent song.

The album is, of course, in a Mars Volta way, rather intense, on and off, all the way through. It does hold a few minutes on several tracks where nearly nothing happens at all. But especially “Cicatriz ESP” (the track before the one I’ve discussed) has a really slow structure, and while it contains an intense chorus near the end, it doesn’t go all out and blast you in the ears with a climactic section.

Therefore, it leaves a space that is perfectly filled with tAMbU, giving a contextual value to the song as well as a great climax for the album in general. Skipping the track to the slow-burn, but great, “Televators” may not be unsatisfying, but certainly not as awesome.

Which is why I totally recommend listening to De-Loused in the Comatorium, from start to finish, and simply paying extra attention to my favourite track.