- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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UncutIt initially seems as if the moments of inspiration between self-indulgences are becoming scarcer. A bracing middle section resuces Amputechture. [Sep 2006, p.89]
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SpinAs over the top as all this can be, Amputechture has little of the thrash influence that's made modern prog so deadening, and the impenetrable lyrics... are easily overlooked. [Sep 2006, p.104]
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This record isn't for casual listening, so those checking out the Mars Volta for the first time should take it slow to prevent a sonic hangover.
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Under The RadarWith each album, the band seems to grab for so much, reaching further and further into the musical abyss, and still and managinge to craft songs that boggle the mind and dazzle the ears. The only question is whether all this is just too academic. [#15]
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Alternative PressAll Amputechture does is test patience. [Oct 2006, p.200]
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It's solid, but as with Radiohead's Kid A follow-up Amnesiac, it highlights its predecessor's brilliance rather than asserting its own.
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New Musical Express (NME)There are bits of 'Amputechture' that sail perilously away from good honest prog into the realms of free jazz. [9 Sep 2006, p.37]
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Amputechture, though not near as spam-handed as Frances, is a bumpy ride, registering somewhere between the latter and debut full-length De-Loused in the Comatorium.
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It seems to prove a cardinal rule about art and ambition; if you paint in too many colors, you end up with mud brown. The Mars Volta could fill up whole galleries with canvases this color, and with Amputechture, have constructed another monochromatic monument to wild, uninhibited excess.
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After an album's worth of tiring, spastic jazzy post-punk that smacks of musical masturbation, chances are you'll really miss At the Drive-In.
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It's sad to see a band that touts itself as experimental sounding like a watered-down, unfocused version of its younger self.
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Amputechture is more a series of events than a complete experience. It's as though the Mars Volta is simply seeing what they can get away with.
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Q MagazineWith nary a tune in earshot, it sounds like an explosion in a guitar shop. [Oct 2006, p.124]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 112 out of 130
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Mixed: 7 out of 130
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Negative: 11 out of 130
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Einar1J.Apr 10, 2008
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Dec 1, 2011This roller coaster ride of a third disc disc, from the Mars Volta, is hard to look away from, but nearly crumbles under it's own ambitions.
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Jul 15, 2022