Octahedron

Octahedron is the 5th full-length album by The Mars Volta.  Jeff Jordan’s art was again used for the cover art and throughout.  This was also their first album to be on Warner Records as their contract with Universal had concluded.  

Octahedron was initially described as the band’s acoustic album, a deliberate change in sound and tone compared to the frenetic nature of The Bedlam in Goliath, as stated by Cedric “We know how people can be so linear in their way of thinking, so when they hear the new album, they’re going to say, ‘This is not an acoustic album! There’s electricity throughout it!’ But it’s our version. That’s what our band does — celebrate mutations. It’s our version of what we consider an acoustic album.”.  Other interviews at the time labeled Octahedron as a pop album.  This was immediately apparent in the first downsizing of the band that had ever occurred with Adrian and Paul both being removed from the line-up for the studio and live versions.  

Cotopaxi was the first single released for the album Debuting in April 2009.  Since We’ve Been Wrong, With Twilight as My Guide, and Desperate Graves were all available to download prior to the album’s release.

If pre-ordered through itunes you would get a live version of Cotopaxi, however, as the song had not been played live yet it is uncertain when and where this was recorded.

Charting:

Australian Albums (ARIA) – 41
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) – 78
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) – 27
French Albums (SNEP) – 123
Japanese Albums (Oricon) – 36
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico) – 69
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) – 33
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) – 20
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) – 51
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) – 54
UK Albums (OCC) – 64
US Billboard 200 – 12