The Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath (3LP) [CLOUDS HILL]

Why you'll love it

Clouds Hill's reissue is remastered from the original mixes and spreads the album over three LPs, the third holding "Mr. Muggs." The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and "Wax Simulacra" won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

This edition

• 3LP set
• Remastered
• Bonus "Mr. Muggs" LP

About the album

Some bands find inspiration in a holiday. The Mars Volta found it in a Ouija board. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez bought it as a gift for singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and the strange run of events that followed shaped the album's story and its feverish mood. Vinyl copies of the original came with a Ouija board inside the gatefold, the band's own take on the one they'd owned.

Rodriguez-Lopez produced, and new drummer Thomas Pridgen drives the whole thing at a sprint, from the frantic "Aberinkula" and "Metatron" to the twisting "Goliath" and "Ilyena." "Wax Simulacra" is the compact blast, and "Agadez" and "Ouroborous" stretch out. Jeff Jordan painted eleven original pieces for the artwork, and the cover is his "Agadez." "Wax Simulacra" came out first as a single, paired with a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Pulled to Bits," and this was the last album with Paul Hinojos, Adrián Terrazas-González and Isaiah "Ikey" Owens.

It's dense, loud and gloriously over the top, and it was the band's highest-charting album. We'd suggest you leave the board games in the cupboard while it plays.

Also at Kops: more The Mars Volta on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Clouds Hill (cat# CH 186), a reissue of the 2008 album.