Francis The Mute:The Mars Volta

Title: Frances the Mute

Label: GSL/Universal

Genre: psychedelic post-rock & Latin free jazz

Rating: 7 of 7

So here it is. Nearly two years in the making, Frances the Mute, will be the defining album in the Volta’s career. They have established themselves with De-Loused, and now Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala have to show the world that the band has not even come close to peeking yet. So what do they do? Release an album that is not only a creative progression of their psychedelic rock meets Latin free jazz sound but that is actually leaps and bounds better than De-Loused. Yeah I said it, and I’ll stand by it (note that this has been written before I have read any reviews of the album). The same cast returns from the previous album (except Jeremy Michael Ward R.I.P) along with the addition of Omar’s little brother Marcel and a slew of other, mostly Latin, musicians. The record is based around a diary Ward found when he was working as a repot man that was a terrifying account of the world through an anonymous man’s eyes. Rodriguez-Lopez composed and produced the album himself, with of course the unparalleled creative input of the multi-lingual lyricist/vocalist Zavala. The final result is 5 songs, 3 of which broken down into movements, which are noted on back. The album kicks off with three 13-minute tracks and “the Widow” which was clearly broken away to keep Universal happy. The second half of the album, which is basically the fifth song, streams continuously as if there were no breaks at all. Overall it is an hour and fifteen minutes of beautifully constructed neo-psychedelic post-everything that is as technical as it is spiritual and as hypnotic as it is intense. Definitely less accessible, but in my opinion much better.

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