Album #123: The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

The Mars Volta

Frances The Mute (2005)

The music press have always been quick to label The Mars Volta as pretentious musical wankers, more interested in disappearing up their own backsides than appealing to the popular music masses. Some of these people were probably still bitter that Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez left At The Drive-In, thinking that their angry post-hardcore energy was TEH SHIZZZ, and that all this Latin/ambient/prog was all just musical flotsam, an unwelcome throwback to a bygone era of long songs, weird time signatures and multiple musical movements.

Basically the music press can get fucked.

I make no apologies for loving the Volta - for mine, they've taken the great parts of progressive rock and fused it with their own backgrounds. However, some of their music does require a great deal of concentration. Nowhere is this more evident than on their second album, Frances The Mute. Whereas their first album was about a fictional protagonist's week long coma, this one was based on a diary found by former Volta member, the late Jeremy Ward, written by someone who, like Ward, was adopted - the diary was a tale of the writer's search for his biological parents. Each song on the album is named for a person in the diary.

Yeah alright, so it's a little pretentious in theme, but how about the music?

The Album

I hope that answers your question.

"BUT DANIEL THAT IS NOT A REVIEW LOL WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE ON WHAT BASIS DO YOU POST THIS EXPLODING HEAD GIF"

I'm glad you asked.

Musically, the album covers a monstrous range of territory. Whether it's the warped Latin influence of L'Via L'Viaquez (resplendent with a twisted version of a slowed-down mariachi breakdown), the tender balladry of The Widow or the majestic ambience of Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore, the album displays more than just a straight rock aesthetic. They're all great but it's probably the end of Miranda that has the most impact; when the drums enter, it's like all of the emotion that builds up is released. It's catharsis on record. The latter two also feature Flea of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers prominently, playing trumpet solos on each; the turn on Miranda in particular is absolutely chilling, managing to convey a real sense of melancholia. 

And then, there's the bookends. Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus is scintillating from start to finish, burning along at a furious pace for the most part thanks to...well, everyone. Drummer Jon Theodore and new bass player Juan Alderete de la Pena create a stunning groove which is supplemented by a plucky riff from Rodriguez-Lopez. Bixler-Zavala's vocal on top of that is like a cherry on top of a sundae, if that sundae were made of BrewDog Hardcore IPA and the cherry was a bomb of pure BrewDog Hardcore IPA.

Yet it's the album closer, the thirty-two minute (YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY) long Cassandra Gemini that serves as the band's most experimental, grandiose and extraordinary composition ever. It doesn't deserve to be considered a rock song - in the tradition of songs like Genesis's Supper's Ready, it's more like a series of songs all interconnected to create one glorious piece of music, and to try and describe the whole thing is extremely difficult. It simply needs to be heard to be believed. Every member of the band contributes some piece of genius, and even if it might be longer than some full-length albums, it's the perfect end to such a mind-bending album.

There are minor (VERY MINOR) faults; there are a couple of moments where the ambient noise that either acts as a link between songs, or as part of some songs themselves, gets a little grating. However, much like on predecessor album De-Loused in the Comatorium, the fact that it serves some artistic purpose (giving the whole album an interconnected feel) means that it can be overlooked somewhat.

Additionally, the album's interconnected feel means it can't be listened to piecemeal - you need 77 spare minutes to listen to the whole thing, otherwise it just doesn't work. Though with that in mind, it could be argued that it's the album that best encapsulates this whole LOAD Project, which was born out of a desire to stop listening to music piecemeal and start listening to whole albums.

The Verdict

If I were to select one album from the last ten years that I would keep at the expense of all others, it's Frances The Mute. As a major fan of progressive music I rate it the best prog album I've ever heard, bar none. It is the culmination of thirty years of progressive development, and I love the whole damn thing from start to finish. 

My rating: 9.99999999999/10

Standout Tracks

Start at Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus, and listen to everything until the very end of Cassandra Gemini