Quasi-complex sound/noise arrangements + guitar effects + whiny vocals/lyrics != good music.

By throwing together all sorts of breaks and beats and bongo noise, then piling on a bunch of ‘poetic’ texts twice as pretentious as the title of the album itself, the Mars Volta seem to think they’ll get away with good reviews and maybe even a few platinum discs just because it’s a “concept album” based on the suicide of a Mr. Julio Venegas. But they’re wrong. “De-Loused in the Comatorium” is just boring, tedious effects noise, and not very interesting noise at that. Sure, they have all this “energy”, but it’s terribly, terribly unfocused and unbearably dragged out in an effort, I’m guessing, to give customers “value for money”. When they try their hand at more balladsy and soft material such as in nonsensically titled “Televators”, it comes out far too contrived to have any impact upon my critical ears. My guess is that they could have cut the 60 minutes of music on “De-loused…” to about 10-15 minutes of material actually worth listening to. Oh, and if I want energy, remind me to buy some sugar cubes and have a few cups of coffee next time (Although not together! Real men drink pure black coffee, only!).

“De-Loused in the Comatorium” is undoubtedly an overrated record belonging to the bargain/trash bin. It is also an album which, I suspect, has received some critical acclaim because reviewers have wanted to make headlines while using words such as “post-rock, post-hardcore experimental neo-psychedelia.” Unfortunately…Well, flame away!

Year Released: 2003
Label: Gold Standard Laboratories
Related Link: The Mars Volta Official Website
Date Reviewed: 2004-01-15
Author: Andreas