Octahedron (2009) Album Review

Expert Review Summary

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 2.6875 out of 4

based on (16) reviews

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Excellent

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 4 out of 4

(0)

Very Good

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 3 out of 4

(13)

Good

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 2 out of 4

(2)

Fair

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 1 out of 4

(1)

Poor

Music critics combined give Octahedron a score of 0 out of 4

(0)

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Craveonline

It's a beautiful, understated album by one of the most complex and fiercely talented bands modern music has ever seen.
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PopMatters

In the end, Octahedron is a solid album that probably has two slow songs too many.
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Antiquiet

It's a celebration of mutations with familiar flare, and in understatement, the band has somehow found new strengths and fire without arriving as repetitious.
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The New York Times

The panache of the singing, and the radiant complexity of the music--an achievement shared by Mr. Rodriguez Lopez and a handful of regular collaborators, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante--drive the album relentlessly forward.
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Paste Magazine

A haunting album full of twilight poetry.
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Sputnikmusic

In the end, Octahedron will simply divide those who like The Mars Volta and those who don’t again.
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Spin

Given its typically foreboding title, Octahedron would not appear to be a cure for this disorder.
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Boston Globe

"Octahedron" does not sound like the Mars Volta's past few records, but it certainly feels like a Mars Volta record, especially in the way it swoops up a listener for an excursion to the psychedelic frontier.
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Drowned In Sound

It's a recommended affair, at times truly scintillating, but it doesn't quite deliver to the extent where all caution can be tossed to the breeze.
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musicOMH.com

The contrast couldn't be greater.
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Entertainment Weekly

Octahedron is rife with hushed passages, acoustic filigrees, and dreamy vocals that herald either a radical retooling or, more likely, a period of transition for these experimentalists.
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Rolling Stone

Bixler-Zavala is no Maxwell; he's more about sharp pain than voluptuous ache. By the end, he invokes Gordian knots alongside a fractallike Omar Rodriguez-Lopez guitar solo. Dude sounds like he's back home again.
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Clash Music

Unfortunately things don't really hold at this high point, and while 'Octahedron' as a whole is passably interesting, it just doesn't reach a level of experimentation that we've come to expect from the band.
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