clip side of the pink eyed fountain
with only a few exceptions (those being my mardi gras party music, some brazilian music my dad brought back from rio, and a brief visit to the land of radiohead), i've been listening to the album de-loused in the comatorium by the mars volta for the past 2 weeks or so. over and over again. in fact, i'm listening to it right now. now, listening to one album over and over again for weeks is not something i normally do. so why this album?
de-loused in the comatorium is hands-down one of the greatest albums i've ever listened to. it's the story of a man who tries to take his own life by overdosing on morphine, falls into a coma instead, and has these fantastically dark sci-fi dreams. he then awakes from his coma, decides to return to the world of his dreams, and jumps to his death. the story behind the album's creation is here, and i just finished reading the book from whence the album came, which i bought here for just $3.
not only is this a very well-crafted album -- i was beginning to make out the basic arc of the story even before reading the book -- but the music is just fantastic. i could describe it as sort of like radiohead gone emo (the good kind of emo) crossed with a perfect circle with a hint of led zeppelin, but that wouldn't really do it justice. so that accounts for maybe one week of listening to the album, but it's the story that keeps me listening. i occasionally have these bizarre dreams that take place in some kind of postapocalyptic sci-fi world, sometimes reminiscent of light years or dune, but usually much stranger. i remember once, when i was in junior high, staying in bed for an entire morning, trying to get back to one of those dreams. the story behind de-loused in the comatorium is like one of those dreams, only more bizarre. it's quite excellent.