I came across The Mars Volta by accident about 5 years ago, a colleague at work was talking about them. So I purchased the album “The Bedlam In Goliath”, the 4th, I have not chosen that as it would be a difficult introduction to the band IMO. Since then I have sought out and purchased all their albums, on vinyl this is not easy as they have a cult following and can be expensive, however recently all the albums have been re-released on vinyl if you are interested.

So onto ‘Frances The Mute’, this is their second album released in 2005, as with all of their albums it has a theme or story behind it. I would advise several listens before you discount what you hear from them, they are extremely accomplished musicians and use a variety of musical styles and genres which initially can be confusing or even disconcerting on some albums. I personally find the more you listen to their music the more you get out of it. I would describe Frances as one of the more accessible albums from The Mars Volta, but would suggest until you get used to Cedric Bixler-Zavala vocal you listen along with the lyrics which will help and may enhance the experience, they can be found at this link, and some of the lyrics meanings are explained.
genius.com/albums/The-mars-volta/Frances-the-mute

The founding members are Omar Rodríguez-López – guitar, direction, backing vocals and Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals, the band supported The Red Hot Chili Peppers on at least one world tour and are good friends with them. John Frusciante the RHCP’s guitarist was in studio from 2002–2009 with them, and 2003–2006 did occasional live performances for The Mars Volta.

I hope some of you enjoy it and may be tempted to listen to more from them. Happy Listening!




tidal.com/browse/album/5722716

open.qobuz.com/album/0007502103977

From Wikipedia re: Frances The Mute -

“The story given by the band on the album's concept concerns a diary that had been found in a repossessed car by late sound technician Jeremy Ward, while working as a repo-man. The author of the diary is unknown but appeared to be someone who was adopted and was searching for their birth parents, and who may have suffered from mental illness caused by the death of a loved one. The lyrics for each track on the album are loosely based on characters and life events described in this person's diary.
Frances the Mute started as a bigger commercial hit than De-Loused, moving 123,000 copies in its first week, and debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard album charts. Reviews of Frances were generally positive (with a 75 on Metacritic) if somewhat polarized; Rolling Stone called it "a feverish and baroque search for self that conjures up the same majesty and gravity as Led Zeppelin three decades before", and even the detractors of Frances the Mute generally praised the band's musical abilities.

Rodríguez-López wrote all of the instrumental parts as well as arranging and producing the recording sessions himself. He used a method that Miles Davis used to evoke great performances from bandmates: refusing to let the other members hear each other's parts, or the context of their own part, thereby forcing them to play each part as if it were a self-sufficient song. In order to accomplish this, the musicians recorded to the pulse of a metronome.”