This is not my favorite Mars Volta album. Although many, many Volta fans (perhaps even the majority) would claim this as their favorite, it has always been the one album (well, besides lolOctahedron) that never fully clicked with me. Although I appreciate its originality as TMV's debut and appreciate the quality, I definitely prefer the followup Frances the Mute, the chaotic and frenetic Bedlam in Goliath, and even the less-appreciated but perfectly architectured Amputechture over this debut.
So why am I posting this album when I just rated it as my fourth favorite in a five-album discography? Because it's the best album for anybody who hasn't listened to the Mars Volta to begin with. It's a litmus test. If you like this album, even a little, even if you don't like the whole thing or can't fully appreciate it on first listen, you should give each of those other albums a listen (because the beauty of the Mars Volta is that all of their albums are unique).
Oh, as for what to expect? Well, frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed this band after the breakup of the post-hardcore/punk band At The Drive-In, so definitely expect to hear some of that. Now mix that with psychadelic rock, jazz, latin, crazy time signatures, guitar solos, and badass musicianship. But the hidden element is what drives this album (and their others): energy. When you start going fast enough that your car starts to shake and you're on the verge of losing control, that is what this band harnesses in their music. And the slightly scary thing is, this is by far their most refined and non-weird album (Bedlam, for example, continuing the above metaphor, is when the rivets holding your car together break and you're suddenly catapulted fifty feet above the freeway).
Take the veil cerpin taxt
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