The Mars Volta Discography Thread

[PuffyPat]

frances is like, okay i guess. there are a couple great songs, but it honestly doesn't do that much for me.

[sneakyblueberry]

frances is like, okay i guess. there are a couple great songs, but it honestly doesn't do that much for me.

you pretty much read my mind on that one.  never really understood why people dug it so much.

[BRGM]

Speaking of Frances...

[sneakyblueberry]

Haha, hey Frances.

[BRGM]

While waiting for Frances, that mute bitch to show up, I might as well rank the songs from De-Loused.

1. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
2. Son Et Lumiere/Inertiatic ESP
3. Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)
4. Eriatarka
5. Televators
6. This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed
7. Tira Me a Las Aranas/Drunkship of Lanterns
8. Cicatriz ESP

This is a very consistent album, almost impossible to rank.

[hefdaddy42]

[Lolzeez]

While waiting for Frances, that mute bitch to show up, I might as well rank the songs from De-Loused.

1. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
2. Son Et Lumiere/Inertiatic ESP
3. Roulette Dares (The Haunt of)
4. Eriatarka
5. Televators
6. This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed
7. Tira Me a Las Aranas/Drunkship of Lanterns
8. Cicatriz ESP

This is a very consistent album, almost impossible to rank.

Best two songs ranked lowest. Absolutely criminal.

[sneakyblueberry]

Looking at this list I realise that it's almost impossible to rank that album, that's how awesome it is.

[SoundscapeMN]

the climaxes on Frances are more or less the greatest part of their whole body of work, and totally worth the build up.

[PuffyPat]

half of frances is just ambient noises. which is fine, but it's not worth sitting through to get to the stuff i want to hear. i usually just listen to cygnus, the widow and l'via nowadays. oh, and i skip most of the ambient stuff unless i really feel like listening to it.

[Zantera]

Are we even officially onto discussing Frances yet? If so, their best album by far. De-Loused is a 5, but Frances is better. Cassandra Gemini is the best song they have done, and blows everything else away.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Are we even officially onto discussing Frances yet? If so, their best album by far. De-Loused is a 5, but Frances is better. Cassandra Gemini is the best song they have done, and blows everything else away.

Flip De-Loused and Frances and this statement is correct.

Though Cicatriz ESP remains my favorite thing they've ever done, Cassandra isn't too far behind.

[hefdaddy42]

Sorry. I'm really busy doing physics revision right now. The exam is today, so I'll get back to it tomorrow

Ummm...

[PuffyPat]

if they're not back in the next couple days, i can do some write ups. i don't want to steal any thunder here, but it's a been a while.

edit: just listened to frances about 3 times, and i've got an extensive piece ready to go if need be.

[The King in Crimson]

If I listened to Frances 3 times in a row, I would also have an 'extensive piece' ready to go as well.

Um. Penis. That is all.

[PuffyPat]

If I listened to Frances 3 times in a row, I would also have an 'extensive piece' ready to go as well.

Um. Penis. That is all.

u know what's up.

oops. did it again.

[James Mypetgiress]

SORRY FOR THE ENDLESS DELAY - I HAD EXAMS, THEN MY INTERNET WAS DOWN FOR 3 DAYS

Frances the Mute - Progressive Rock/Experimental Rock

(ALTERNATIVE COVER)

Tracklist
1.   "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" (13:02)
2.   "The Widow" (5:51)
3.   "L' Via L' Viaquez"  (12:21)
4.   "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" (13:09)
5.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 1) (4:46)
6.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 2) (6:40)
7.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 3) (2:56)
8.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 4) (7:41)
9.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 5) (5:00)
10.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 6) (3:48)
11.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 7) (0:47)
12.   "Cassandra Gemini" (Pt. 8) (0:54)
Extra Tracks - JAPANESE BONUS
13.   "Frances the Mute" (14:36)
14.   "Drunkship of Lanterns" (live)
15.   "Cicatriz ESP" (live)   
16.   "Televators" (live)
Personnel
Omar Rodríguez-López – guitars, synth, production
Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
Jon Theodore – drums
Ikey Owens – keyboards
Juan Alderete de la Peña – bass
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion, keyboards
Description
Frances the Mute is the second studio album by The Mars Volta released on March 1, 2005 on Gold Standard Laboratories and Universal. It was solely produced by Omar Rodríguez-López. Frances the Mute sold 123,000 copies in its opening week and has sold 465,000 copies as of September 2006. The album made multiple "Best of" lists at the end of 2005, and is one The Mars Volta's most successful releases.
Reception
The album received largely positive reviews, getting a total of 75/100 on metacritic, showing that most critics rated the album favorably. Negative reviews mostly stated that they didn't like it because it was just another concept album, and was somewhat farcial.
Again, let me know what you think, and again, sorry for being away.

[James Mypetgiress]

if they're not back in the next couple days, i can do some write ups. i don't want to steal any thunder here, but it's a been a while.

edit: just listened to frances about 3 times, and i've got an extensive piece ready to go if need be.

p.s. please feel free to chime in, I'm REALLY busy right now, so... yeah. Go ahead 

[PuffyPat]

and we're back! wooooooooooooooo.

what i can say, is that after listening to frances 3 times yesterday, and really listening closely, i definitely have a new found love for it. i've always loved the record, as i love every volta record, but it never really clicked all that much.

my fav thing about that record tbqh is juan's bass lines. they're usually super simple, but he just has this way with simplicity that really elevates the piece of music. he's just a master bass player i guess.

i'll post my full analysis tomorrow after people have a chance to discuss this record a little more.

[Zantera]

Like I said in my previous post, I definitely think this is their best album. Cassandra Gemini is probably the best prog epic (and their best song), and it's 32 minutes of pure joy and awesomeness. The other 4 songs ain't half bad either. I love the first 3, but I can see some complaints for the album, and Miranda does drag at points, but I can live with that since it pays off eventually. If Miranda was the final track of the album, that would have been a disappointment, but somehow the quiet and ambient parts of that song complements the pure chaos that is Cassandra Gemini.

[seasonsinthesky]

it took me a long time to deal with the amount of ambient/noise interludes, especially coming off the incredibly concentrated DITC. still today there are a few i think are too long (ends of "Cygnus" and "Widow," intros of "Frances" and "Miranda"). however, my enjoyment of ambient/noise has developed a lot over the last 10 years, and i can listen through the album without particularly hating those moments like i did before.

obviously the non-ambient parts contain some of their best moments. i would say every song, title track included, contains at least one top 10 TMV moment for me, which i can also say for DITC (so, err, top 20?) but not for the albums that follow – they have great songs and moments afterward, obviously, just not in EVERY song on the album.

i despise the screechy woman yelling when "Cygnus" is ending, though! talk about ear pain!

[James Mypetgiress]

i despise the screechy woman yelling when "Cygnus" is ending, though! talk about ear pain!

When I put the CD on iTunes, I put Cygnus into audacity and cut out the end. Can't stand it!

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Cassandra is such a masterpiece of a prog epic, and second only to Cicatriz ESP as my favorite TMV song. Even when I first heard this record, I wasn't too put off from all of the ambient and more abstract interludes scattered throughout. They really did a fantastic job at making it all sound purposeful and letting it just flow natural, as if every moment on this album happened as a stream of consciousness.

This album also excels in building such wonderful tension and letting the musical apex become as grand as it can be; case in point: Miranda. People will knock the opening ambient section till the cows come home, but there's no denying how explosive that song becomes towards its middle and just how haunting it sounds overall. The song as a whole really does play well into Cassandra as well; I often see it as the quiet prelude before the utter madness and chaos of Cassandra.

While I don't think this album has quite the frenetic edge that De-Loused has, it's still jaw-dropping to say the least. I couldn't live without either.

[Nihil-Morari]

Funny thing is, that I don't like Cassandra that much. The first 10 minutes or so are full of 'oh man this is the best thing they've ever done' moments, but after that it get a little too jammy for my tastes. Of the other songs Cygnus and Miranda are my favorites. I like the simplicity in Miranda, I like the craziness in Cygnus. L'Via gets a bit too poppy every now and than, and Widow is just too short to compete with the other songs.
Overall you're looking at a VERY good album, so negative comments are relatively negative.


BTW, an interesting theory I've been thinking of, this album is the first where I think the album goes on too long. If they would've shorten it by maybe ten minutes it would've been even better. All the albums after this have that to an even greater extent. How do you guys feel about that?

[hefdaddy42]

Good to have you back, James.

I will re-listen to the album tomorrow morning.

[James Mypetgiress]

Good to have you back, James.

I will re-listen to the album tomorrow morning.

Thanks, Hef. It's good to actually be able to access the internet.

[hefdaddy42]

lol

I can imagine

[Fluffy Lothario]

To borrow somewhat from a post I made on 5/8 a wee while ago:

Frances the Mute is at this point one of my favourite albums ever made, and almost certainly my favourite prog album (the only ones to even rival it are Close to the Edge and Lateralus).

As far as I know, it's the only album I ever bought because I heard it over the speaker system in a music store. Considering the amount of time I spent in music stores during my late teens/early twenties, that's an accolade in itself.

The entire album, ambience and all, is spectacular, every song is perfect where it fits into the larger work, but Cassandra Gemini is potentially the best prog epic ever written. The mindblowing thing about it is that at no point does it feel like separately written bits of music have been welded together to make a larger composition. Show me another prog epic of its scale that you could say the same about. Not to say epics done like that all suck, when that approach works, it works, but more often than not, it feels really contrived. With Cassandra Gemini, barring the album bookend at the very end, the whole thing feels seamless, like a single piece of music, even if there's an initial verse/chorus section at the start which it then leaves waaaaay behind. The whole way, it feels like it's progressively departing from that point, like the song is going somewhere and there's a singular plan, rather than "oh, here's another chunk of music we thought would go nicely after that piece and we'll arbitrarily chuck after it and call it one song". And it remains incredible the entire way.

If you like prog music in general and you don't like this album, you deserve to be tied up naked with every orifice in your body pried open, beaten all over with socks filled with cat food, and left to become intimate with a swarm of cockroaches.

/hyperbole

[Nihil-Morari]

If you like prog music in general and you don't like this album, you deserve to be tied up naked with every orifice in your body pried open, beaten all over with socks filled with cat food, and left to become intimate with a swarm of cockroaches.

/hyperbole

 

But again, I like the flow of the song, I don't like 6 minutes of dwelling on one riff just to build up a bit and go to another riff.

[Zantera]

With some prog epics, the song goes off rail and the jamming becomes almost self-fulfilling with the band trying to please their own egos, but with Cassandra I feel like everything is meant to be, and every second of it serves a purpose. It's just flawlessly constructed, and the way they go into jam mode and slow down the pace, only to bring it up a few minutes later into an explosion of energy and groove, is just amazing. It reminds me of a really tight jazz band where everybody is technically improvising, but they know each other so well that they all know exactly where to go with their music.

I honestly don't know if there is a single song I could point to, with better musicianship than Cassandra. From the guitars to the vocals, the bass (some of them grooves), the drums and the organ.. the song basically gives every instrument huge highlights, and sometimes I get sweaty even listening to the music, because it's like they are squeezing 150% out of their instruments.

[PuffyPat]

BTW, an interesting theory I've been thinking of, this album is the first where I think the album goes on too long. If they would've shorten it by maybe ten minutes it would've been even better. All the albums after this have that to an even greater extent. How do you guys feel about that?

i think their records are fine the way they are. people always complain about them going on too long, but i wish some of the stuff went on longer tbqh. although it does depend on the day.

[KevShmev]

Great record.  This is the record that got me into the band, and it has held up well.  I don't listen to TMV much anymore, but when I do, it is usually something from Deloused or Frances, and Cassandra Gemini is definitely one of the best 30-minute plus rock tunes ever. 

[sneakyblueberry]

Ah dang it.  I'm gonna have to give this another listen through, you guys have made it sound so much sweeter than I remember.

[darkshade]

It has to be have been a few years since I've listened to this album. Brings back memories. I remember one time listening to the title track first before the album, and it ruined the experience for me. It was one of the last times I listened to this album I think. I'm glad that title track got relegated to B-sides status, it's OK on its own.

This used to be my least favorite album, though, before Octehedron came out. I just could not get into anything after the first 3 tracks, but now that I'm older, and more musically experienced, I really enjoy those epics, along with a lot of TMV stuff that I dismissed back when the band was around.

Anyone remember when The Widow was on the radio a lot? I'm talking between 2004 and 2006. People forget how big of a hit that song was.

[darkshade]

double post