FRANCES THE MUTE

Frances the Mute is one of those albums that you either love or hate. In my case I started out thinking Frances the Mute as being a loud and very unprogressive album, then over time I began to listen to it more and more until finally I actually like it now. Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus puts the album into perspective, especially when the music suddenly erupts after the intro. The first time I played the CD I thought the volume was low, so I unknowing I turned it up and then it came the change of pace where the music becomes very loud (if the volume is turned up that is.)

Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore is a great song (collection of songs) my song on the album is Vade Mecum. The theme sounds like a thunderous storm coming when it is played by the trumpets, Bass Guitar ect. The two short songs that end the album (Tarantism and Plant a Nail In the Naval Stream) are great because it ends the album in the same way it was started. Cedric Bixler Zavala is a very good singer and he reminds me a bit of Robert Plant and Geddy Lee, he is kind of a mix of both. The guitarist Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez is very prominent in the music featuring with many solos and guitar passages. The presence of the extra percussionist (Marcel Rodriguez ) is noticeable as well.

Okay so I still don't like a few things about the album, in particular the way the songs are set out is very confusing. On the back of the CD case there are apparently 16 songs but in fact there are only 12, I'm bit confused as to where the songs are. Overall this is not a masterpiece in my opinion, but it scores a healthy 4 stars. The Mars Volta is the next big thing in prog... best of luck to them.