I must say that I wouldn't know how to define the genre: in "Frances the Mute," the Mars Volta really let their creativity run wild, perhaps too much so... I would say that the experimental digressions attempted by Cedric Bixler and company are, perhaps, improbable for those trying to listen to the album. Already in the previous album, in my opinion more listenable and very beautiful, the MV still carry the sounds, much more personalized, of the former group "At the Drive In"; but in this album (5 tracks in total) the concept-album idea reaches extreme limits. In more than an hour of the album, one can consider about fifteen minutes of songs, the rest pure madness.

The first track "Cygnus vismund Cygnus" offers rhythms perceptible only after some repeated listening, "The Widow" is perhaps the most listenable and catchy song if you disregard the 10 minutes of digression that drags on after the end of the song. The fourth track is a very successful attempt at epic-psychedelic.

But I wouldn't want to downplay the Mars Volta too much as I still believe they are a great band, but to truly understand their quality, I think this album isn't the most suitable.

Tracklist Lyrics and Samples

01   Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus (13:02)

The ocean floor is hidden
From your viewing lens
A depth perception
Languished in the night
All my life,I’ve been
Sewing the wounds
But the seeds sprout
A lachrymal cloud

Niño preparate
Que vas sufrir
Niño preparate
Salte veneno
Niño preparate
Salte de aqui
Niño preparate
Labios temblando
Niño preparate
Salte veneno
Niño preparate
Salte de aqui
Niño preparate
Brincan los cuerpos
Vas a sufrir

My nails peel back
When the taxidermist ruined
Goose stepped the freckling impatience
All the brittle tombs
Five hundred little q’s
I’m splitting hairs to
Match the faces

All night long I’ll hunt for you
Let me show you what I mean
Sangre
Sonando
De rabia naci

Now this train don’t lie
An abortion that survived
A lineage of
Bastard mastacation
All the severed proof
Talons scratch my suite
These are the feathers
That replace them

All night I’ll hunt for you
Let me show you what I mean
Sangre
Sonando
De rabia nací

Who do you trust
Will they feed us the womb
Chrome the fetal mirage
Will they feed us the womb

I found the remnants
Of a crescent fang
It cleaned my wing
Down to the bone
Umbilical syllables
Left to decode
There was no cradle
I can taste it
Come on now

All night I’ll hunt for you
Let me show you what I mean
Sangre
Sonando
De rabia naci

Who do you trust?
Will they feed us the womb
Chrome the fetal mirage
Will they feed us the womb

Bring me this plague
She took a drink
Those nicotine stains
On his every word
My scavenger quilt
Will only hide the truth

Bring me
Bring me this plague

I count the days to find
What was left behind
Only these names I clutch
Will lead me to my home
Somehow this river marks
A wrinkle hand in mine
And everyday that parts
The water into two
Mothers and feathers start
To drown the living proof
I can’t remember these lakes of blood
Wrapped in a blanket
There sweats a cut

Who do you trust?
Will they feed us the womb
Chrome the fetal mirage
Will they feed us the womb

02   The Widow (05:50)

He's got fasting black lungs
Made of clove splintered shards
They're the kind that will talk
Through a wheezing of coughs
And I hear him every night
In every pore
And every time he just makes me warm

Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Must I hide
'Cause I'll never never sleep alone

Look at how they flock to him
From an isle of open sores
He knows that the taste is such
Is such to die for
And I hear him every night
On every street
The scales that do slither
Deliver me from...

Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Then I'll hide 'cause I'll never never sleep alone
Oh lord

Said I'm, Said I'm, Said I'm,
Said I'm bloodshot for sure
Pale runs the ghost
Swollen on the shore

Every night
In every pore
The scales that do slither
Deliver me from...

Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Then I'll hide
'Cause I'll never never sleep alone

Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Let Me Die
'Cause I'll never never sleep alone

03   L’Via L’Viaquez (12:21)

04   Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore (13:09)

05   Cassandra Gemini I (04:45)

06   Cassandra Gemini II (06:40)

07   Cassandra Gemini III (02:55)

08   Cassandra Gemini IV (07:41)

09   Cassandra Gemini V (04:59)

10   Cassandra Gemini VI (03:48)

11   Cassandra Gemini VII (00:46)

12   Cassandra Gemini VIII (00:53)

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Other reviews

By ZiOn

 Frances The Mute remains a unique experience, perhaps excessively cerebral, but one to be lived in any case.

 Every tie to any convention has been broken. We’re just a group of self-indulgent friends, we’re painters painting our feelings.