Noctourniquet is the sixth studio album by American progressive rock band The Mars Volta, released on March 26, 2012 on Warner Bros.. Produced by guitarist and songwriter Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, it is the band's first studio album to feature drummer Deantoni Parks, and the first not to include contributions from guitarist John Frusciante and keyboardist Isaiah "Ikey" Owens. Inspired by the children's nursery rhyme, Solomon Grundy, and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus, Noctourniquet is a concept album, with vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala stating, "It's about embracing life for what it should be. There's a view of the elitist lifestyle - that Read more on Last.fm.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of The Mars Volta for whatever reason. Noctourniquet doesn’t make a fan out of me, but it doesn’t make me want to crusade against them either. I feel rather indifferent to the album. Everyone knows they’re terrific technical musicians, but the sum of the parts doesn’t fit together in a way that makes me want to dive right in.
Still don’t like them…still respect their ideas. (I did like Frances The Mute….my one exception)
Here’s a word I thought I’d never use to describe a Mars Volta record: uninteresting. I’m still glad in principle that a band like TMV continues to exist and thrive, but I can’t say I will be forever if a band whose lynchpin of challenging creativity does anything resembling going through the motions.
‘Noctourniquet’ is a bit less progressive/experimental and a little more, simply, odd. In seemingly focusing on songwriting, they seem to have lost some of the unexpected tangents we’ve come to love (and expect?). They’re still in a corner of music all by themselves, though, and this album is still great.
Overall a pretty good album, my opinion is rather skewed since my first and most memorable experience with Mars Volta was Frances the Mute which was a dramatically different album. This whole work had a very chill laid back vibe to it, the vocals are absolutely awesome especially with the ethereal sweeping background music.
Genuinely a good album for Mars Volta fans. The album is much more compact than previous ones, so no eight-minute synth guitar deviations, but still it has that “Mars Volta” flare to it. Bixler-Zavala’s vocals are once again an amazing instrument to be witnessed.