The Mars Volta - Francis the Mute

John Frusciantes guitar solos are blistering, and Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus is like nothing i've ever heard before. Despite what most people have said about it i think The Widow is great, and obviously the only single.

The tracklisting makes no sense and its tough to work out when the different suites start and end, but after about 20 noodling minutes it finishes strongly with the Sarcophagi reprise.

Omar said with every bit of improvisation they lose another At the Drive-in fan, and that is why they improvise so much. I doubt they'll have many ATD-I fans after this, but i think its pretty mind blowing.

It does lose focus slightly with the last track, i'd say track 9 could have been cut and track 10 could have been halved, but the rest of the album is gold.

Cedric has matured a hell of a lot since At the Drive-in. He doesnt shout so much anymore and the production of the album is a huge improvement with Omar is charge, (though some of my friends think its a little over produced).

10 bucks, buy it man.

they kick about a third as much ass as a Dream Theater side project.

ouch!

-- dmun (a_s_fishe...), March 1st, 2005 3:00 PM. (link)

That's fucking retarded if it's true. "Close to the Edge" has three tracks on the CD, though you could split it into suites if you went by the liner notes. "Thick As A Brick" has 2 (technically would be one track if that was possible back in '72). Is Universal gonna tell us that those are EPs?

wtf? writers be stupid!

Anything they hate this much HAS to be good.

yes, L'Via L'Viaquez has a few latin/salsa/psych/prog moments.

I'm guessing thats deliberate, Cedrics lyrics on Deloused were pretty much nonsensical gibberish, whereas on Frances hes trying to tell a story and Omar overcompensates by sticking the vocals real high in the mix.

Also, the last song is called "Cassandra Geminni", not "...Gemini". Don't ask me about the conceptual significance of that particular spelling.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2789

OTM! All the best prog bands have WORST fucking lyrics.
*cough* crimson *cough*

Drumming = classic
Swirly soundscapes = dud(e)

Who's buying this thing? I don't get it.

I thought that was Faust. (ducking)

I was just trying to sound like the most annoying possible version of myself.

ihttp://www.racerxband.com/pictures/80pix/images/racerx15.jpg

"Tales From Topographic Oceans" is a double album with 4 tracks on it. EP? I think not.

But I guess that, legally, those might count as EPs too then.

i think it might be due to the fact that when it first came out, it was super cheap, and the that the lead single is super catchy. i bet any normal MTV viewer is tricked into getting it after hearing The Widow

Track 1 some heavy Crimson shit. I just watched a Crimson concert from '84 on DVD and this could have been one of the songs they were playing.
These guys are for real! I'm really excited that this is #4 on Billboard.

Taking into account the very ugly and obnoxious FBI warning on the CD itself, I'm sure the splitting CG into 8 parts thing is just a fuck you to file traders on behalf of Universal. The tracks don't even correspond to the suites, it's just random sabotage as far as I can tell.
First impression : My favorite record of the year, so far.