Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Old Money

Stones Throw
Published February 26, 2009  by Sean Marchetto in CD Reviews

Billed in the album’s press materials as "perhaps the most accessible of his non-[Mars] Volta recordings," Old Money is supposed to reflect Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's interpretation of exploitative industrialists. However, apart from song titles like "How to Bill the Bilderberg Group" and "Trilateral Commission as Dinner Guests," there is very little to tie the music to its subject matter. The first half of the album races along at a near-constant breakneck tempo, with little to distinguish the first five tracks from one another. Along with the driving beat, perhaps meant to approximate the relentless pounding of early industrial machinery, the atmosphere is dense like those same smoky factories. The listener chokes on wandering guitar riffs and noodling keyboard loops. Tracks like "Family War Funding (Love Those Rothschilds)" expend a lot of energy on bells and whistles to very little effect. “1921" becomes noteworthy for the initial absence of drumming and the inclusion of subtle Middle Eastern motifs, but it still suffers from the same lack of thematic unity that undermines the album as a whole.



All Content Copyright © Fast Forward Weekly 1995-2011

About Us Contact Us Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Use