aww paper he just released another record on the 28th you shoulda reviewed that one lol

He's got a lot of hit or miss stuff, but he does have pretty good albums. Though he often rushes things which really kills his releases.

Totally agree. I also feel cheated when listeining to Mars Volta albums and finding tracks taken off his solo stuff and put into Volta albums.

not heard but liked the review pos, whats best to listen to first of his ?

'not heard but liked the review pos, whats best to listen to first of his ?'

Old Money, Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo and The Apocalypse Inside Of An Orange are some of my favourites by him.

@martin - 'xenophanes' is pretty cool too, as is 'omar rodriguez lopez and john frusciante'

@hernan - ah ok that makes sense, I'm sorry for your loss. I actually lost my own grandfather who I was quite close with recently so I can relate. He was a great man. It's not easy but it gets easier with time, hang in there mate.

but yeah I wish omar would filter his stuff a bit, seems like he just hits record, jams for an hour then releases it

Pos'ing your reviews is becoming habit.

Album Rating: 3.0

Thanks everyone for the good feedback and comments.



@Tommy

I'm sorry to hear that, mate. I was close with my grandfather as well, though I hardly saw him because he lived in a different country. But thank you for your support, may they both rest in peace. I also agree about your comment on Omar, he's a good musician, he just needs to slow down and think things through.



@Captain

Yeah, after re-reading this I do seem more critical than I actually feel. It's a solid Jazz album, it's just a bit sloppy at times. Omar likes to fuse Jazz with Prog and math rock elements, and though these genres welcome unorthodox song structures and overall chaotic sounds- Omar tends to take advantage of that and instead of making a "captivating" type of craziness, he ends up sounding messy. It frustrates me because he has a lot of talent, but lacks direction. If he hired a producer to help guide him through his ideas, separating the good and the bad, he would be releasing some brilliant stuff. Omar has too much control over his own sound, and when there's no one around to say "that's a terrible idea"- the music can suffer.

I don't think he gives a crap whether his music is "good" or not, in a sense, he just wants to keep going and going. At the same time... this might be some sort of defense mechanism to 1. block him having to spend too much time on any one thing and 2. protect against bad criticism, since "whatever, I wasn't really taking it seriously."

Or maybe he likes to release things quickly, say "whatever, it's just some thing I slapped together", and then secretly love it when people think it's "genius" work, or whatever.

I can understand he doesn't want to get bogged down on any one thing, he just wants to keep it fresh keep it going... But I would much rather he sit down and really work something fantastic out, rather than churn out this kind of bland stuff.
Also, I know he has to make a living and all that, but why do you have to release all of this stuff for people to buy? If you want to release it, just let people download it and pay for it if they want to. If you release it and put a price on it, you're saying it worthy of purchase.

Whatever, I'm just saying what comes to mind. I love The Mars Volta/At the Drive in, and even some of Omar's solo stuff, but that doesn't stop me from having these thoughts.

Maybe Omar is the shark of the music industry, in that he has to keep producing albums or he'll die.

"...little moments of misguided artistic directions that just end up brining everything down."

I love your little play on words here with the use of the word "brining". Excellent review.

Album Rating: 3.0

Sorry, I meant to say "bringing everything down", not "brining". Also, I like your Syd Barrett avatar, the man is a genius.

paperback I've probably asked you before but do you dig syd's solo stuff?

Album Rating: 3.0

@Tommy

I actually own both 'The Madcap Laughs' and 'Barrett', though I prefer 'The Madcap Laughs'. It's good folk rock music, and still showing the child-like whimsy in his lyrics. It's not the psychedelic freak out of 'Piper' but theyre good albums overall. What about you?

yeah I feel pretty much the same, some of it is a bit too bare bones for my liking though, especially compared to piper

I have those two and opel, though I haven't got around to opel yet

probably prefer madcap too, but barrett has a couple of great tunes, namely love song and effervescing elephant

"I don't know where Omar gets the idea that this bullshit he constantly pumps out is quality."

He would just tell your opinion doesn't matter and that he makes music for himself which is what he usually says in interviews. Probably defense mechanism against negative criticism.


I haven't enjoyed a release by this guy in sometime. He needs to slow it down and put some thought into what he releases.

Album Rating: 3.0

@Tommy

I dont own Opel, but I've heard a few tracks. It's okay, but not as good as the 2 studio albums. I love those 2 songs as well, and "Baby Lemonade". Though the 2 albums really dont match the creativity of 'Piper'. The songs are kind of sloppy and I dont know- just not as interesting as the ones on 'Piper'. But overall, they are enjoyable.

yeah if you pick the gems from each you could get one very good album but there is a fair bit of rubbish

maybe rubbish is a bit harsh but certainly a lot of half baked ideas that they should have either put more time into or just abandoned

it's hard to know exactly what syd's motivation for releasing them was when it's obvious they had so much trouble getting anything out of him (according to dave gilmour)

I can't believe I missed this review. POS.

screw his solo albums, I'd rather have new AtDi.