FRANCES THE MUTE

Before The Mars Volta lost their minds and started recording music that sounded like traffic accidents, they actually released a couple of really good-quality albums. Their debut LP, De-Loused in the Comatorium, was a brilliant modern-day Prog Rock record that breathed new life into the genre in many ways that didn't feel re-hashed or mimicked. Afterwards, they began to get a little more ambitious. Frances The Mute was the second release from the band, and it in many ways expanded upon the ideas that were first laid out in the first album.

So many things have already been said about this album, that I'm honestly not sure what else I could say that makes any more difference to the majority opinion. Let me just say that this album is a very good one, albeit a little more focused on the pointless distortion of the tail ends of the recordings and sound effects. However, despite there being some moments of filler on this record, I still think the music that is present more than makes for it. Things are much more intense this time around, and it leads to the album experience being an arduous one, but you feel like you've been through a great journey by the album's end, which subsequently features the same orchestration as the beginning, which gives the record a singular, self-contained kind of conceptual feel. Possibly taking influence from The Wall in that regard, but who can say for sure.

A very good album, but it would only go downhill from here. Not as good as its predecessor, and certainly not as good as what would follow, at least in my opinion. If you enjoyed De-Loused and haven't heard this yet, I do recommend picking it up. It's like the most aggressive moments on that record turned up considerably, surrounded by some haze. It's fine for what it is, but doesn't quite reach the same heights as what came before it. Fans of the first record will still like this one, though.