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(Mar 22, 2005)
The Mars Volta: Frances The Mute
Rating - ***
The Mars Volta page
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You've probably heard at least one song, "The Widow", from
The Mars Volta's new CD, Frances The Mute. And
if you've heard it once you've probably heard it dozens if not
hundreds of times. You know the one - its hook is "....cause I'll
never, never sleep alone." Those lyrics are a reference to dread-induced
insomnia, not to sex addiction as I had initially thought. Also,
the lead singer is a man, but he sounds like a woman. So rather
than it being a woman's proclamation of her sluttiness, it's a man's
proclamation of his cowardice. There's a moral there somewhere and
I'll get to it as soon as I figure out how to pronounce "L' Viaquez."
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Spanish textbooks would tell you that it's "li-vee-YAH-kes", but
The Mars Volta pronounces "L'Via" as "EL-vee-yah", so by
extending that logic, "L'Viaquez" should be pronounced "EL-vee-yah-quez." An
ugly, uncomfortable mouthful to say the least. Not destined to become
a household word anytime soon, on either side of the tortilla curtain. The
whole problem could have been avoided if they had named the
monolithic "L'Via L'Viaquez" something simpler like "Pinche Gringo
No Entiende Ni Una Palabra." But they didn't, so we're stuck with L'Viaquez.
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The Mars Volta has a pretty sharp website and the biography page, before
it sets about to explain the unexplainable, starts out with the following statement:
"Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala formed The Mars Volta in 2001 in
order to dispose of labels and limitations of hard-to-move-beyond genres
strip-mined into obsolescence -- be they dinosaurs, prog, or 2-d punk."
Later in the bio they ask the listener to consider Frances The Mute as
their true starting point because what came before was their adolescence. I'm
willing to accept both of these statements at face value. Frances The Mute
is very interesting music, the "Pinche Gringo" song is really intense, makes for
repeated listenings, and "The Widow" has stood up pretty well to popularization. The
rest of the CD gets lost in a Gothic maze that even Jimi Hendrix would have found
too convoluted for his liking.
So, I'm going to throw one label at The Mars Volta that I hope doesn't
stick - "Gothic." Fine, make one CD about sarcophagi and people threatening
to find you as they get sucked underwater. Throw in some son and some bad
Spanish and confuse everyone as to your true colours. Fool me once, shame on
you. But watch their next album. If it's more of the same, move them over
to the Gothic section of the music store (where only the weird people and/or
CD reviewers ever dare to tread).
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