THE WIDOW

In Frances the Mute fashion, the title track of an album it didn't even appear on begins with atonal noises, this time a distant clattering. For four-and-a-half minutes this goes on (remember "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"), but when the actual music comes in, it is The Mars Volta people can immediately recognize. It is amazing that this group can take a relatively simple chord progression and smother it in rock and experimentation such that it becomes far more complicated sounding than it really is. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez fires off a brilliant little guitar solo, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala is as dynamic as he is on the studio album. Later, the piece involves forlorn acoustic guitar and soft singing, occasionally gripped by devilish, throaty effects. After another bout of heaviness, the piece concludes with spacey growls and the strummed theme of an album this excellent song was, for whatever reason, rejected from. What is funny to me is that if The Mars Volta had cut out all of the experimental gunk from the album, this dirty gem would have had a proper home, but for some reason, I find it all the more appealing that it was cast aside in this manner, like a shameful treasure. "The Widow" is edited, which essentially means only the song proper is present (the sonic experimentation that is unpleasant for some- and understandably so- is cut off at the end). It's worth mentioning that this edited version has a twisted, sick music video.