The Mars Volta, The Bedlam in Goliath

Official release date: January 29

We think: It's definitely too early in the morning to effectively judge the merits of a new Mars Volta record, but suffice to say that anyone who's still interested in these guys probably knows what he's in for. On a first listen, Bedlam seems to be another mostly hookless, 70-minute prog-rock explosion, more in line with 2005's impenetrable Frances the Mute than 2006's Amputechture, which dabbled, sometimes for minutes at a time, in listenability. So far we like the intermittently melodic "Agadez" and "Ouroborous," which sounds a little like King Crimson falling down the stairs.