Review of Frances the Mute Album by The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute - Album Review

The Mars Volta

Frances the Mute

First a scratchy, strummed guitar chord-sequence like a sitar then the gentle- sounding Cedric joins us with his high-pitched voice, moving through notes, following tremolos. The first song then cuts into a fast-paced rock blast with crunchy wah wah guitars. They throw in abrupt pauses before laying back into the beat. “Who do you trust?” is harmonised beautifully before the drums chuck some hard shit at the percussion wall. Now, the song breaks down to a brief musical wash and there comes a subdued instrumental jazzy

Mars Volta - Frances the Mute - Album Review

workout out with fading guitars sliding up and down a blues scale. Repetitive and hypnotic, the jam becomes hysterical and features the cryptic lyrical image “I can’t remember these lakes of mine,” while majestic strings cut through the piles of electric guitars and mashing drums.

No rest, here’s a screaming and feedback part, sounding like a child singing Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”. A sample of children talking resonates over a scurry of electronic pulses, throbbing.

And that’s just the first track.

Mars Volta’s album, now into a Latin exploration, featuring bongos and piano, continues to develop. Its theme, who guitarist Omar a Rodriguez-Lopez (no relation I assume, to Jennifer) explains is about their late bandmate Jeremy Ward. Ward died of an overdose prior to the release of their debut and this second album is an exploration of his life. He reportedly found a diary in an old car and found that the more he read, the more he felt coincidences and similarities to the life of the author of that diary. This album explores the diary in relation to Jeremy’s life. Deep shit.

So it’s fair to say this is a prog-beast of a concept. But The Mars Volta are none too chuffed about labels and classifications. But how else do I describe it? It is Pink Floyd kaleidoscopic experimentalist concept and Led Zeppelin big haired rockin’. It is quality. It is satisfying music, rich in ideas and excellently executed.

I will spend weeks inside this album.

RANGY MANATEE

http://www.rangymanatee.blogspot.com

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