THE APOCALYPSE INSIDE OF AN ORANGE

Omar was really on a roll at this point in his career, both with The Mars Volta and with his solo material, being able to be involved in such a wide range of sounds and concepts all executed to such high quality in some truly bizarre, yet fantastic pieces of work, with this being easily his greatest solo effort up to this points and all around just a masterpiece that's more or less on par with some of TMV's output. Apocalypse Inside of an Orange sees ORL at his jazziest, with all of these interweaving melodies and rhythms tangled up in this complex mess of jazz fusion, funk and prog that has such an air of spontaneity to it that ends up sounding like very little else other than the other works of Omar himself. The album features a near-flawless collection of tracks that represent a broad selection of styles and concepts that act as a pretty great summation of his work up to this point as well, further allowing this to flourish as a wonderful whole experience that more and more feels as if it works better once you've familiarised yourself with a lot of other work from ORL. You've got your more jazzy, funky moments such as Melting Chariots and Sparked from the Insult List, building around prominent and catchy grooves and melodies with wind instruments being brought into the fold, but then you've also got these much more surreal, absolutely bizarre cuts that go off in completely unique, often disorienting directions. My favourite of this variety is Knee Deep in the Loving Hush of Heresy, which switches between these dense walls of chaos that feel barely coherent and this really smooth, catchy groove at the drop of a hat, rapidly intensifying as things go on until it becomes more difficult to discern the 2 sides as it all melds together into this explosive, intense flurry. I'm also a fan of how things can take a step back and allow some atmosphere to flourish, especially with the title track, which ditches a lot of the conventional rhythmic elements that the rest of the album built itself upon, replacing it with this abstract, spacey percussion style that feels far slower than anything else without completely ditching what makes the album so great, with a lot more of the psychedelic elements especially coming into play. The final track, Coma Pony also needs mention as one of the most beautiful songs that Omar's created, having a lot of similar intense emotion of some of his previous works like Se dice bisonte, no búfalo but with more structure to it and an even more emotive guitar performance, really just culminating in a true masterpiece. Overall, this is yet another success in a career full of them, but Apocalypse Inside of an Orange really reaches that next level of greatness to me and is an absolute must for anyone who's at all interested in the work of The Mars Volta

Best tracks: Knee Deep in the Loving Hush of Heresy, Sparked From the Insult List, Coma Pony

Weakest tracks: Baby Fat