Best Songs from The Mars Volta's Noctourniquet
Noctourniquet is the sixth studio album by the progressive rock band The Mars Volta.Oh, what a surprise - another TMV ballad that is highly atypical due to the use of rough background noise and fast, energetic drumming. I like this song a lot, but there's no denying that their ballads usually become like that.
I find this song to sound very similar to a Radiohead or Muse song, with an emphasis on the piano in the background. Cedric's vocals are almost the best I've ever heard from him as well. The second half of the song, when the guitars properly kick in, is absolutely amazing.
While it starts off a bit slow, the way it transforms into such a beautiful song quickly bumps it up to one of my absolute favorite songs on the album.
Nothing about this song sits quite right, but that's why I love it so much. Nothing should work, yet almost everything does. The creepy high singing and the off-pitch, spoken chorus add to the charm of this song.
An extremely eerie song with some chilling vocals. Despite being the first track on the album, it sounds as if it's the end of the world, and they've lost all sense of sanity. My only issue is the ear-piercing nature of those synths. However, after a few listens, they become less jarring.
The bass is so good here and is definitely the highlight of the song. I feel like the chorus is extremely emotional as well, as I can clearly feel the anger behind it.
Another highlight of the album, ultimately putting TMV's success rate with album closers at 5/6. The reason I love this one has everything to do with the excellent chorus and the general power the song has.
This is a really good song in general, with a couple of nice transitions and a nice balance of loud and soft elements.
Definitely the best pure ballad of the album, as it's a nice balance between being too uneventful and too chaotic. It provides some nice, almost industrial sounds in the background while Cedric sings so softly.
Another ballad, albeit a more conventional one. It really shows how great Cedric can be, as the vocals are of extremely high quality.