Yes you read that title correctly.
It was nearly a year before I was able to figure out that the vocal abilities of Cedric Bixler-Zavala were so....so....on the scale of Mariah Carey.
Don't get me wrong folks I, like so many of you out there, am a closet fan of the Volta but come on it was hard to tell on their first album who that was leading on vocals if you weren't a pop punk/screamo fan of the early O's.
I was introduced to the band by a soon to be unmasked psychotic ex-gf but lets just say that the only good thing she managed to pull off from her very limited pot-destroyed-pea brain, was to play me De-Loused in the Comatorium.
I always felt the Volta were better at naming their albums than most progressive bands. I mean "Train of Thought"? what's next Artic Conundrum?? (thanks shane peters)
I really enjoyed Comatorium, it was unlike anything I had heard before. For me, it was a perfect blend of prog-punk-spacy-avant-garde-craziness that I had very little of in my CD collection back then. (at that time i was listening to mainly SKA...but don't tell anyone)
Their sophomore album, Francis the Mute was one of the most anticipated releases I ever encountered. A small band of college music geeks and myself talked about this album for months and could not stop talking about it after we had heard it. To this day it is one of my all time favorite albums. Once I heard the horns I knew this CD would always have a special place in my heart.
I enjoyed how this album seemed to be much more refined than the first and that the Volta were going in a direction I could really dig. I loved the blend of Spanish and English lyrics, the intensity of the opening track and the mellowness of the 3rd track L' Via l'Viaquez.
Then came 2006. After a mediocre-at-best live release, came the band's 3rd album: Amputechture.
What a disappointment. This album felt like a bunch of B side tunes all in 3/4 or some variation there of and put on the same piece of plastic and packaged as a Volta album. I tried over and over again to dig this album but it just sucked to me. All of the transitions felt choppy, if anything, it was a step backwards. This album should have been a demo to the first release. It probably either was that or the result of a pushy record company. Despite the 4 star rating from allmusic.com, I would have to give this album 2 breadsticks and that is generous.
To anyone who may disagree, I will say I plan on spending some time with all Volta CDs shortly, maybe I am wrong but as of right now: No, no I am not.
Then came the band's redemption: The Bedlam in Goliath. Now a lot of Volta fans gave up on them by the time of this 2008 release but I hadn't. They proved to me that they could make excellent music and one (and one live release) release that didn't live up two its predecessors could be forgiven. I enjoyed the band's 4th studio album. I thought it showed signs of healing, re-tweaking and getting back on course. I loved the effects of the radio static, it gets me everytime. This album gave me hope that there was still hope.
We will see if that hope delivers on June 23rd 2009 when Octahedron the band's 5th studio album is released. I have to say I am quite excited for this CD and hope that perhaps we may have another Francis the Mute on our hands.
Only a schizophrenic drug induced coma of progressive noise rock with effects on the vocals could give us any indication.
De-Loused in the Comatorium 5 breadsticks
Francis the Mute 5 breadsticks
Amputechture 2 breadsticks
The Bedlam in Goliath 4 breadsticks
