FRANCES THE MUTE

The Mars Volta was probably the most important new Prog Band of the 00's. Finally there was a band that could write songs that stretched out for 15 minutes, play in odd time signatures, create some of the most esoteric lyrics you are likely to hear in modern rock and still recieve some mainstream attention. Most importantly they were resonsible for showing kids like me that there was more going on in Rock N Roll in those days than either Jack White or Two-Bit Metal band no. 511! "Frances The Mute" is for my money, The Mars Voltas magnum opus. On this album they succeded with creating what they failed to do on "Deloused In The Comatorium" (also an amazing album) and that is proper dynamics. Roughly speaking, the album can be said to follow a pattern: Two peices of fiery Heavy Metal and two beautiful soft songs, all connected with ambient passages that finally leads up to the 32 minute nuclear war of an album finisher: Cassandra Gemini, wich combines the moods of the rest of the album brilliantly. The ambient sections that i mentioned has been a controversial topic for many, and one of the reasons why many people choose "Deloused" over this one as The Volta's best album. But i think that they are beautifully directed with the horn section deserving special praise (in fact the horn playing for all of this album is superb.) I appreciate the more than i do the extended instrumental jams of latter albums. Thats all i am going to say on this topic. A true masterpiece.