The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
Genre: Progressive/Avant Garde/Psychadelic Rock/?!?! (this could be argued all day)
1. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus (13:08)
This song starts off with a beautiful, soft, eloquent intro, and then abruptly launches into a funkadelic jam of instrumentals with spanish lyrics. The vocals switch back to English, and you can quickly hear just how amazingly malleable his vocal range is. The sound is kept kind of intentionally muffled at first to add to the jittery effects. The song slows down substantially for a while, once again in kind of a 'jam' style, but much more subdued, before launching back into amazingly eloquent vocals and strange lyrics. I cannot say enough about his vocals, they make or break your opinion about his band. This man can hit the highest note in the human range, something not that many ladies can do, let alone men. Anyway, they let fly a blazing guitar riff, while slowly fading out the other instruments, before exploding back into the main chorus, and the song fades out. The song ends with three minutes of an assortment of sounds that are mostly filled with discord. Although I can see what they were trying to do, as they carry this throughout the album, I think it kind of hurts the songs they do it on. 8/10
2. The Widow (5:50)
A song that kind of has the instrumentals chasing the vocals, this song revolves around his vocals and lyrics. It is shorter than every other song by a substantial amount, making it for many people the most listenable song on this album. The instrumentals are for the most part short and sweet, with a kind of church organ sound going on (of course from a keyboard), although they still make sure to whip in plenty of subtle guitar riffs (and other instruments, this is a band that uses a lot of brass!). A very fun song, especially when the vocalist starts belting it out in the middle. The song fades out, as before, with stringent discord.
8.5/10
3. L'Via L'Viaquez (12:27)
Their most bilingual song when it comes to lyrics (although, if I recall correctly, the title is not proper Spanish), this song is absolutely beautiful. It has a slightly more poppy and easy to follow beat than the rest of the songs on this album, although it might be slightly harder for some to follow with the influx of español. They shift into a slightly more eerie sound 2:45 in, with the vocals going to a half whisper (in English) to add to the effect, then the guitar comes powering back with a great riff and we are back to the earlier form. It cycles back to the eerie English part, then the brass and guitar build it up to an explosive ending with him wailing..although this is not really the ending, since there are five minutes left. The rest of the song is a slow fade out of the instrumentals with the half whispering and some odd piano work. This time it is not so much filled with discord, just that it might take too long for some people to finish.
9/10
4. Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore (13:15)
The song starts with four mintues of creepy ghost like sounds, then the song starts sounding like it will both start and then drip away, finally with an eloquent simple clarion saxaphone riff over the noises the song starts. The songs are so slow and literally sounds as if they are dripping with beauty throughout the first several minutes. Eight minutes in, the drums, sax, guitar, and everything else start meshing leading into probably the most powerful vocals of this entire album. However, this is once again followed up by a slow, discord filled five minute long ending, and I think it hurts this song more than the others.
7.5/10
5. Cassandra Gemini (32:14)
One of the greatest songs ever. This song has everything a song could want. It starts out with quick guitar and drumming with powerful vocals, then launches into a detective narrated spiel reminiscent of something like Sin City. His vocals during this are manipulated to make his voice sound in the vein of those movies, and it works great, and they launch straight from this into the closest this song has to a chorus, "there is no light, by the darkest of your furthest reaches." I cannot describe in words why this part is so amazing, but it is. Two minutes later when they repeat this, they follow it up with an almost even more excited refrain, with the beat changing up a little, which keeps it interesting. This is followed up by blazing fast guitar and bass and drumming, which then transforms into a slower but very tightly done drum and bass session, very throbby and staccato. The song keeps going like this, with little two minute segments or slow, each one fairly different from the last, going back and forth from super excited to tight and throbbing, until about 21:00 in. They do a tight little jazz jam for six minutes or so before the brass comes blazing in, and, although once again it is in a vein of discord, this part sounds amazing, and is absolutely great to hear. Then the bass comes back in, setting up for the most explosive ending to any song besides probably Free Bird and Stairway to Heaven. It jumps straight from three minutes of excited brass to him belting out the vocals and continually vibrant guitar, back to the 'chorus' (25 minutes later, haha!) and this time they overlay his vocals (digitally) a second time screaming even higher. The drumming and guitar are going crazy at the same time as he is performing his duet with himself, and after 32 minutes, the song cuts from him screaming THERE IS NO LIGHT with a slight squeal. 10/10
Overall: This album does not have quite as many 'great' songs as De-Loused in the Comatorium, perhaps, but Cassandra Gemini could easily count for four or five of them. 8.6/10
Genre: Progressive/Avant Garde/Psychadelic Rock/?!?! (this could be argued all day)
1. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus (13:08)
This song starts off with a beautiful, soft, eloquent intro, and then abruptly launches into a funkadelic jam of instrumentals with spanish lyrics. The vocals switch back to English, and you can quickly hear just how amazingly malleable his vocal range is. The sound is kept kind of intentionally muffled at first to add to the jittery effects. The song slows down substantially for a while, once again in kind of a 'jam' style, but much more subdued, before launching back into amazingly eloquent vocals and strange lyrics. I cannot say enough about his vocals, they make or break your opinion about his band. This man can hit the highest note in the human range, something not that many ladies can do, let alone men. Anyway, they let fly a blazing guitar riff, while slowly fading out the other instruments, before exploding back into the main chorus, and the song fades out. The song ends with three minutes of an assortment of sounds that are mostly filled with discord. Although I can see what they were trying to do, as they carry this throughout the album, I think it kind of hurts the songs they do it on. 8/10
2. The Widow (5:50)
A song that kind of has the instrumentals chasing the vocals, this song revolves around his vocals and lyrics. It is shorter than every other song by a substantial amount, making it for many people the most listenable song on this album. The instrumentals are for the most part short and sweet, with a kind of church organ sound going on (of course from a keyboard), although they still make sure to whip in plenty of subtle guitar riffs (and other instruments, this is a band that uses a lot of brass!). A very fun song, especially when the vocalist starts belting it out in the middle. The song fades out, as before, with stringent discord.
8.5/10
3. L'Via L'Viaquez (12:27)
Their most bilingual song when it comes to lyrics (although, if I recall correctly, the title is not proper Spanish), this song is absolutely beautiful. It has a slightly more poppy and easy to follow beat than the rest of the songs on this album, although it might be slightly harder for some to follow with the influx of español. They shift into a slightly more eerie sound 2:45 in, with the vocals going to a half whisper (in English) to add to the effect, then the guitar comes powering back with a great riff and we are back to the earlier form. It cycles back to the eerie English part, then the brass and guitar build it up to an explosive ending with him wailing..although this is not really the ending, since there are five minutes left. The rest of the song is a slow fade out of the instrumentals with the half whispering and some odd piano work. This time it is not so much filled with discord, just that it might take too long for some people to finish.
9/10
4. Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore (13:15)
The song starts with four mintues of creepy ghost like sounds, then the song starts sounding like it will both start and then drip away, finally with an eloquent simple clarion saxaphone riff over the noises the song starts. The songs are so slow and literally sounds as if they are dripping with beauty throughout the first several minutes. Eight minutes in, the drums, sax, guitar, and everything else start meshing leading into probably the most powerful vocals of this entire album. However, this is once again followed up by a slow, discord filled five minute long ending, and I think it hurts this song more than the others.
7.5/10
5. Cassandra Gemini (32:14)
One of the greatest songs ever. This song has everything a song could want. It starts out with quick guitar and drumming with powerful vocals, then launches into a detective narrated spiel reminiscent of something like Sin City. His vocals during this are manipulated to make his voice sound in the vein of those movies, and it works great, and they launch straight from this into the closest this song has to a chorus, "there is no light, by the darkest of your furthest reaches." I cannot describe in words why this part is so amazing, but it is. Two minutes later when they repeat this, they follow it up with an almost even more excited refrain, with the beat changing up a little, which keeps it interesting. This is followed up by blazing fast guitar and bass and drumming, which then transforms into a slower but very tightly done drum and bass session, very throbby and staccato. The song keeps going like this, with little two minute segments or slow, each one fairly different from the last, going back and forth from super excited to tight and throbbing, until about 21:00 in. They do a tight little jazz jam for six minutes or so before the brass comes blazing in, and, although once again it is in a vein of discord, this part sounds amazing, and is absolutely great to hear. Then the bass comes back in, setting up for the most explosive ending to any song besides probably Free Bird and Stairway to Heaven. It jumps straight from three minutes of excited brass to him belting out the vocals and continually vibrant guitar, back to the 'chorus' (25 minutes later, haha!) and this time they overlay his vocals (digitally) a second time screaming even higher. The drumming and guitar are going crazy at the same time as he is performing his duet with himself, and after 32 minutes, the song cuts from him screaming THERE IS NO LIGHT with a slight squeal. 10/10
Overall: This album does not have quite as many 'great' songs as De-Loused in the Comatorium, perhaps, but Cassandra Gemini could easily count for four or five of them. 8.6/10
