The Mars Volta’s latest album, Frances the Mute,
encroaches on fresh musical territory by merging dark melodies,
odd-metered rock jams, powerfully projected vocal harmonies, and
countless effects Imagine Radiohead and Led Zeppelin melting together
to form heartfelt new-age melodic rock. Poignant, atmospheric,
and aggressive, Frances the Mute is a reinvention of
the concept album.
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The twelve tracks are
divided into five movements. Everything about this album
is epic: the complicated time signatures, dissonant guitar
solos, the layered, translucent soundscapes. Sometimes the
music floats; sometimes it rocks as hard as ever. A close
listen reveals cars driving by, alien space ships landing,
insects squeaking – the mean frequency of waves being
created by effects and amplifier feedback. The sounds are
interwoven in a progressive thought structure for seventy-seven
minutes of music and noise.
“L’Via L’Viaquez”,
the twelve-minute third track, is worthy of mainstream recognition
with upbeat, clever, catchy melodies and orchestrated changes
to slow, Latin merengue style verses. The lyrics dash between
English and Spanish, adding to the colorful overall sound
achieved by frontman Cedric Bixler. The song is doused in
effects, but certainly geared to an artistic end. Effects
can get cumbersome, but here they create a somber tone and
fill out the potential soundscape.
The Mars Volta @ Bonnaroo '05
Photo: Jeff Kravitz
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The Mars Volta over-expresses their creativity, as if they did
everything they could to add to the musical experience of an album.
Every moment is used for something, and a second or third listen
undoubtedly uncovers new sounds a listener could not notice on
a first listen. Frances the Mute sounds amazing while cruising
down the road at 4am or through headphones. The subtleties of
the album come in so many forms – trumpet swells, strange
volume alterations, undetectable changes from track to track -
that they practically translate to color.
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The vocals are, at moments,
reminiscent of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, but the lyrics
are unique and mysteriously ambiguous. The Mars Volta are
a five-piece band, but they display tremendous versatility;
They can mimic ten-musicians-in-sync or a lone soloist.
Frances the Mute is a bit overproduced at moments, but
The Mars Volta model much of their album work on live shows.
This album I will listen to incessantly, but it wasn’t
something easy to swallow. That I had to put in the effort
makes all the more worthwhile. |
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