LimeWire Music Blog

It must be simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating to be Omar Rodriguez Lopez. Between The Mars Volta and his solo projects, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has released a dizzying number of albums over the last few years, emerging as the clear front-runner for the title, “the Robert Pollard of Prog Rock.” Listening to a lush, layered-sounding album like Xenophanes, though, you might think he’d been spending years in the studio honing it to perfection. Rodriguez Lopez remains a masterful guitarist, his resonant riffs and pealing leads alternately evoking Frank Zappa and Robert Fripp, but Xenophanes is no mere six-string showcase. Sure, Omar lets some fretboard fireworks fly here and there, but staying true to the aforementioned Zappa and King Crimson influences, the tunes here are tightly composed, with complex structures that put the emphasis on vocals (the lyrics are all in Spanish, FYI). For as many shifts in dynamics, tone, and meter as these songs offer, there are no wasted moments, nothing that seems excessive or unnecessary. If there’s a vital future for American prog, Rodriguez Lopez is undeniably at its forefront.