FRANCES THE MUTE

I remember I first saw The Mars Volta on MTV (I'm not an MTV watcher at all, I find most of their music to be s**t), with "The Widow" and "Interstatic Esp". I wasn't surprised by "The Widow" (which is a typical standard song), but "Interstatic Esp" called my attention, specially by its crazy rhythm and vocal melodies. Anyway, a friend of mine lended me "Frances The Mute", which for most of people, is their masterpiece or best album. So, why not give it a try ?

First of all, this is to me a big dissapointment, because there are problems:

- One is the, as same reviews said before, the 'noises': What sense has to put after "The Widow", 2 minutes of effects (?) or noises (?) that make no melodies, and terribly bore me ? That noises are repeated along the album, specially on "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" (which has a duration of 13.09, but really starts at 4 minute, because before are unnecessary noises and effects). This is the reason that makes me advance the song, or just skip it. I don't know if the so called 'noises' are a part of experimental music, but it doesn't appeal to me, it's absolutely unnecessary. This is the main reason I do not like this album; it's hard to say it, but it' true ...

- It gets terribly BORING (yes, with capital letter) during the epic "Cassandra Gemini" (32:27), mainly because of the 'noises', and the constant repetition during some moments (and uninspiring melodies), in my opinion. Being myself a big fan of epics, this is a very big deception to me, and finishes destroying the album.

So, there's a description of the tracks (In my opinion, the album finishes in the song "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"; the 32 minute epic doesn't count to me, and the reasons are explained upper):

"Frances The Mute" begins with the crazyest and most powerful song of the albumm, "Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus". Well, starts with a nice acoustic intro called "Sarcophagi", with nice vocals. And then EXPLODES, yes explodes with a powerful and crazy drum bit, very influenced by the God Of Drum, "Bonzo" John Bonham. I find Jon Theodore drummer to be excellent. The vocals are crazy here. This is the typical song to wake up in the morning, and gives me an incredible energy. I can hear some cool guitar solos and fantastic rhythms. And before each chorus, a Queen choir, that's very well used. Ah!, and the bass does cool lines, combined with the drums. Nice instrumental intermission in the middle of the song, a bit repetitive, but it's OK. Funny to listen to. When I first heard this song, I was really amazed and hoped this album to be excellent, but unfortunately it's not as good as I expected. "Frances The Mute" is very far of being excellent, in my opinion ...

The follower track is "The Widow", an standard ballad, by far the more typical song of the record. I saw the video of this song too. This song doesn't mean something very special to me, but the chorus is beautiful: "Freeze without an answer Free from all the shame..." (and depressing too...). I can hear the callaboration of Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), playing the trumpet. Anyway, good song but it's destroyed by the unecessary 2, almost 3 minutes of 'noises'. What a pity, really ...

The other song I saw in television was "L'via l'viaquez" (obviously shorted, because its duration here is 12:21). Cool guitar riffs, and again a lot of energy takes prescence here. Here, the RHCP guitarist, John Frusciante collaborates with some solos. Yeah, I must say are a bit 'orgasmic' the screams before the latin rhythm enters; excellent, guys !! That latin rhythm goes very well with the song, as well as the spanish lyrics. Excellent song, I must say !!

Then the album starts to decay, with the follower song "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore", as I said before, with unnecesary 4 minutes of 'noise'; and the final and very bad epic "Cassandra Gemini", that, as I said before, bores me A LOT (I almost fell asleep, honestly ...) Not more to say about this, because it bores me so much, that I can't pay attention to the music ... what a shame ...... !!

Overall, it's a good but (obviously) non-essential album, a bit mediocre; and I look to "De Loused In The Comatorium", because I don't want to stay with this opinion about this band (I hope this no to be a dissapointment).

Rating: 2.5/5