What the hell is up with the Mars Volta's lyrics...

What the hell is up with the Mars Volta's lyrics? I just finished listening to their entire discography and I am perplexed as to why they made such great music only to ruin it with some of the most obnoxiously stupid lyrics I've ever heard. I mean, I know that there are a lot of good bands out there with enigmatic lyrics, but other bands actually sound like the put some thought into them first. With the Mars Volta, it's like they were high as fuck doing Mad-Libs and then just decided "Hey, lets make a song out of this!"

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=WwFYy_Th7BA
youtube.com/watch?v=bfgD3LJ6Xb8
youtube.com/watch?v=89g1P_J40JA
youtube.com/watch?v=TzL-up4ZKgI
twitter.com/AnonBabble

The lyrics are based mostly on what sounds good with the music iirc.

its easy to ignore if you listen more
at least thats how i got over it
i stopped noticing the words over time
frances the mute (aside from cassandra gemini) doesnt have that bad lyrics imo

they can't write for shit

yeah dem boys definitely own a thesaurus

most prog lyrics are awful though

this. Steven Wilson makes me cringe so hard.

EEEXOOOOSKEEELETAL JUNCTION AT THE RAILROAD DELAAAYYEEEEED

what did he mean by this?

>its easy to ignore if you listen more at least thats how i got over it i stopped noticing the words over time frances the mute (aside from cassandra gemini) doesnt have that bad lyrics imo

Dude, I think you have Stockholm Syndrome. This band can't be healthy for you.

SHE WAS A MINK HANDJOB IN SARCOPHAGUS HEELS

But the lyrics on Deloused and Frances are really good. It doesn't matter that they're essentially meaningless, they sound damn good and that's what they were going for. Post-Amputechture is when their lyrics really started to cheese up.

It's just that good desu

i've got a penis that can rip through the very fabric of time

but for real though op frances is my favourite album. it's concept and the lyrics make sense if you read into it

Dude, wtf? How am I supposed to read into it when several songs alternate between cryptic lyrics and complete gibberish. Vismund Cygnus and Lvia are the worst offenders here.

>i've got a penis that can rip through the very fabric of time
it's actually "ive got a pain inside" not penis, but the made it sound like penis which is really clever.

i don't know how anyone can hate their lyrics. it's like you have no appreciation of language

well on frances i cant understand half the lyrics anyways because they're in fast spanish
and the rest really arent that bad if you know the story

>i don't know how anyone can hate their lyrics. it's like you have no appreciation of language

I do have an appreciation of language. I don't appreciate the random gibberish that's inserted into the songs between coherent understandable verses. Stupid shit like 'Sanjay, sonado, da rabba nazi' just frustrates the shit out of me.

>I do have an appreciation of language
>Can't recognize Spanish and calls it "gibberish"

Yep, it's b8, boys. Pack up and go home.

That's Spainish? Well that made me look at things differently. I live in a Alaska, so I don't hear spainish much

theres more than one way to write lyrics. maybe instead of being chosen because of the words explicit meaning they were chosen because of the way they sound and the feelings they evoke. I think the lyricism is fun and at times coherent but more importantly it is emotionally and musically in tune with what omar and the rest of the band plays

ok but are you gonna actually argue that the mars volta has predominantly coherent lyrics?

I mean coherent as in they are in English. They are still ridiculously abstract and vague.

>That's Spainish? Well that made me look at things differently. I live in a Alaska

>i don't know how anyone can hate their lyrics. it's like you have no appreciation of language

Pastel fragments of demented magnolias
Sense the past tense of clandestine insomnia
Rubber baby buggys bump through the cambrium
Thursday's last breath blew it's sins into bubblegum

for you, user :)

which song is that i forget

I bet OP never saw the curse that flew right by - aw fuck i need to go back im sorry guys

their lyrics are great dude. listen to them for the imagery, the breadth of reach, not the message

What the fuck does you living in Alaska have to do with anything?

There's no Spanish speakers in Alaska

Apparently they made it by improvising gibberish they sourced from watching a wall of TVs set to different channels

Wheetabix bamboozled lullaby parasols
Twisting the tongues of september through rabbit holes
Buckled knees Chucky Cheese orgies in pantomime
Blessing the bellfry with tape decks from Columbine

what the fuck is the "imagery" or "breadth of reach?" these are just meaningless buzzwords or platitudes used by people to justify bad lyricism. These lyrics don't say anything, they don't evoke anything. "rubber baby buggies bump" dawg are you seriously defending this? what is a demented magnolia. How do any of these lines even work together?

there are artists who do imagery well without having very literal lyrics (I think bon iver, the national occasionally) but mars volta are not one of them.

I think that guy was being sarcastic

The vocals are just another instrument. Don't listen to the lyrics for the meaning, listen to the music for its meaning. The words are only there for their sounds. Listen to it like you're listening to music in a language you don't speak.

2deep4u

Some of it was also taken from cut-ups from a journal they found in a used car one of the members bought that belonged to some Mexican guy.
The lyrics sound good, most of them do at least. Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus especially has good ones.

And I'm Australian and we have no Spanish speakers and I still got it. What's your point?

...

hard to tell, people make that argument in 100% seriousness all the time

lmao

Yeah you don't live in the sprawling metropolis of Nome.

what's some other word-salad-core?
pic related is fantastic but the lyrics make absolutely no sense

Mike Patton writes his lyrics for their sounds moreso than for the literal meaning of the words.
>inb4 "egg"
>inb4 "holds up spork"

the lyrics in Mr. Bungle actually make sense, though

>tmv uses odd choice of words in a seemingly nonsensical way
>lmao mariachi slipknot is so lolrandom garbage word salad, pretentious ahhhhh
>whitebois do the same thing
>hey now, thats completely different. You just don't get it

Through a black pirouette
Sudden centuries ossified
Stained the cracks through which they fled
Their colostomies gentrified
Thick temper tantrums turn sand into red rum
To soak the charred figments of newborn Ted Dansons
Shriveling traffic jams jarring the fowl
A tesseract laced with prosthetics and jowls

Mate, I literally live in the fucking outback. Pic related is a pic I took from a few ways away from my house.

he never said he disliked TMV's lyrics you dumbshit

Who gives a shit? If it sounds good, don't read the lyrics along with it.

kind of hard to ignore if you speak English though

It's incredibly easy. Just listen to the instruments and the timbre/melody of the vocals.

But when Anthony Kiedis writes lyrics for their sounds, people freak the fuck out.

fair point, bungles last two albums were great too. cardiacs kinda suck though

Simmer the frills of felt barnacle crockery
Out through his limbs on a sigh
Wishing his gills wouldn't whisper this mockery
Metatronianic in its lies
Soon seize the suede condemnation of ocelots
Bearing beige boots out of spite
Jutting yellow bandwagons filtering their blood clots
As the viscous tendrils ignite
Caca muerte bolero, la barba celosa
La mosca del melón suave como el terciopelo
Codo de plata, humilde patata
Once dudar de las pendejos

I always thought lyrically it sounded like they were doing almost like a tongue in cheek parody of old prog songwriting.

But a lot of times I think it's just whatever strange sounding words sound good/weird strung together in a row.

That's because RHCP's sounds are ass and the words he writes are dumb in a boring, buttman kind of way.

my nigga
also
THE KIOSK IN MY TEMPORAL LOBE IS SHAPED LIKE ROSALYNN Carter

>Mars Volta
>great music
pick one
Fucking pretentious nonsense. These dilettantes take the cake I swear to god. Wow. Omar essentially just plays bluesy boring wankery - pentatonic scale shit - with some weird shit mixed in. Then something that approximates to Spanish music, which is nothing like actual Spanish music. Add in a bunch of pedals to obfuscate the fact the nothing makes sense. Cedric is fucking gay as shit. Probably literally has sucked cocks before. Though I guess that was all the rage in the kind of "am I bi? who knowsSsS tehe" post-hardcore scene of leftist faggotry. Oven these guys, for real. Stupid rich kid punk rockers.

you sound like a true punk rocker bro. You read breitbart?

Excellent critique. You should write for P4k, I bet you'd fit right in :^)

>>>/p4k/

>Obfuscate mixed post-rich kid bluesy nothing
>Pentatonic rage in the kind
>Oven these pedals to approximate probably
>These dilettantes take the cake in a bunch

IDK... sounds like a mars Volta lyric to me. user confirmed for being a cock sucking leftist?

Brutal fucking murder!

You need some Peter Hammill.

lololololol

to be fair, 95% of all lyrics are awful

I actually enjoy trying to figure out whatever the fuck is trying to be conveyed by the lyrics. I realize that not all of their songs are coherent, but there are some that hint at bits of narrative or create a vivid emotion or image. The word choice also reinforces an occult-like vibe that sets them apart for me. They also make for great shitposts.

I have heard this album several times and I cannot recite any lyrics for the life of me.

>THIS NEVER HAAAPPEEEEENED, BUT I SAW YOU LEEEAVE
>WHO DO YOU TRUUUUUUST
>NO THERES NO LIGHT

there are so many memorable lyrical moments gotdam bruh

le drug

fucking kek'd and check'd, user

gawd pls no. Tell me youre being sarcastic user i beg you

I think I've becum one of the others
aaaaaaaaaaaaa
oooooooooooh
oaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Cassandra Gemini is such a rad song from that album.

I used to think Cedric Bixler's lyrics were some serious tangential off the wall genius, but now I listen to a bunch of it and it sounds so cringeworthy. Remember an interview or something where he explained how a lot of the time though he puts a bigger emphasis on creating phonetic sounds and combinations that sound interesting in tandem with the music, and less on coherency. So there are threads of stories in his stuff but I think he's mostly being an autist and throwing paint at the wall.

I haven't listened to Volta in a long time but goddamn, I was so into them from 2008 to 2011 or so. Saw them twice and they murdered it live. Gonna see atdi next weekend and we'll find out what that's like.

I've got a penis that can rip through the very fabric of time!

FREEZE WITHOUT AN ANSWER
FREE FROM ALL THE SHAME

What's with caps-lock on all the lyrics? Was Billy Mays the lead singer or something?

Your argument for why you hate the mars Volta
>Cedric's possible sexuality
>Omar plays a scale every now and then
>they use pedals
>they're weird
>Mexican musicians make music that sounds Mexican
>they have blues influences just like all rock bands

It feels like that sometimes

Baseballs mangled in tangled torrents
Ice cream headaches & serial killer warrants
Houses sliding sharply in spangled ovens
Christians finger bang in occult covens

Dude, 100% my favorite line off Frances. The whole song is nothing but metaphors for fucking

Confirmed!

SHE SAID MY MAP IS HOME AGAIN BUT TALKS FACE DOWN

>thinking homophobia is hip
You must be over 18 to post on this website

captcha: nagger entrance

"Look at how they flock to him
From an isle of open sores
He knows that the taste is such
Such to die for
And I hear him every night
On every street
The scales that do slither
Deliver me from?
Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Then I'll hide
'Cause I'll never never sleep alone
Oh Lord
Said I'm bloodshot for sure"

25 wives in the lake tonight, raw bark in the water of the marble shrine

youtube.com/watch?v=WwFYy_Th7BA
youtube.com/watch?v=bfgD3LJ6Xb8
youtube.com/watch?v=89g1P_J40JA
youtube.com/watch?v=TzL-up4ZKgI

simple =/= bad

Unless you mean close to the edge, that's pretty much vocal wankery

Excellent bait, friendo ;)

chuckle'd

Thank you for posting this.

>pentatonic scale shit with some weird shit mixed in
your life must be very sad

>Stupid shit like 'Sanjay, sonado, da rabba nazi'

Oh god...

Maybe it's just a cheap bait, but in any case he says "Sangre, sonando, de rabia nací"

Those lyrics are way better than ''Sangre, sonando, de rabia nací'' and you know it

you have yet to explain why it's "bad lyricism," other than because "it don't get it!"

Glacial half leg automaton forceps
Shake salt on the snails that envelop your doorsteps
The candy-colored breathing of moths drape the vowels
Of gingerbread lepracy wearing the cowls

AFTER ALL WE CAME UNDONE
PAIR OF SLUTS WHOA NOW THAT'S FUN

...

all lyrics are automatically better when you yell them loudly

you have yet to explain why it's "bad lyricism"

No.
Fuck you for posting this.