結果、主役として明確に押し出されるリディア・ランチ。吐き捨てるようなナレーションと、喚き散らされる口語の乱雑な交差。余りにあからさまな"壊れ"っぷりは、いささか鼻につく気がしないでもないが、コラボ作としてはこれぐらい明確な色が付いているぐらいが丁度良いのかも。ひしゃげた聖歌めいたものがユラユラと揺れ、ランチ嬢がサブマシンガンの如く言葉を乱射する"Getting Rid Of God"のくだりが、最もエキサイトした。
If you are not familiar with non-mainstream works of John Frusciante away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez outside of The Mars Volta, this might be a great way to introduce yourself to it before you start checking out their solo albums. Seven tracks, apparently recorded in Rodriguez-Lopez's bedroom in 2003 - two of which were published on an ultra-rare limited edition 7" single in November 2005 - make a great companion for lonely working nights and a great experimental music album for the aficionados.
Some really funky and trippy production on here. The compositions that Omar offers here present a constant latin tinged rhythm that progresses through the songs, but only slightly and almost imperceptibly, so that the five songs run into each other more like one 20 minute Jam. The album is only 20 mins or so long, but it could get fairly boring (or even quite annoying?) if it continued for much longer - so the 20 minute mark seems quite fine in my book.
The vocals offered by Lydia require an open mind. The voice has been manipulated to sound like the zombie thing from the 80's 'tales from the crypt film', and much of what she is saying seems totally flippant and no-brained, like a rather annoyin female Bill Hicks wannabe. The verbal content of the album really lets it down at times i feel. I wondered why exactly Omar chose to collaborate with this person.
Anyhow, changin the focus: the album, when judged merely on account of the mood it creates and the sounds that are played around with, makes for quite a quirky and interesting listen. In my humble opinion, this owes greatly to Omars virtuosity as a musician and producer than anything that Lydia does, and he could have feasibly swapped her input with that of, say, David Hasslehoff for an equally interesting listen. The concept of 'Polishin the turd' seems to spring into my mind. So adept is Omar at polishing turds judging by this work, that i would actually recommend this album - even if you don't particularly hate Religion and Men.