Frances The Mute
by The Mars Volta
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 31
  3. Negative: 3 out of 31
  1. Alternative Press
    100
    It's already the most riveting album of 2005--provided you're ready to carve a wide enough hole in your consciousness to accept it. [Mar 2005, p.130]
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  2. Drowned In Sound
    100
    It's practically a compulsory purchase.
  3. Spin
    91
    Frances explores an explosive groove Comatorium only implied. [Mar 2005, p.83]
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  5. E! Online
    91
    If you've got the time to dig in, Frances the Mute proves a cohesive, intricate and expertly layered experience.
  6. Stylus Magazine
    91
    Whereas the somewhat timid and searching De-Loused in the Comatorium was all about surprising audience, critic, and probably the band itself, Frances the Mute is a self-assured organic animal that should come as no surprise to anyone.
  7. Playlouder
    90
    Miraculously the lyrics never sound like the pompous shite they undoubtedly are. They fit the music and make the whole picture even more laughably and absurdly brilliant.
  8. Delusions of Adequacy
    90
    It’s not prog rock. It’s not punk rock. It’s not emo. It’s not indie. It’s just music, and it will incinerate your mind if you let it.
  9. AllMusic
    90
    Perhaps the only match for the cerebral weirdness and eventual beauty of Mars Volta's lyrics is their music itself.
  10. Mojo
    90
    Listen to Frances The Mute without any prog-induced prejudice... and it emerges as the triumphant sound of a band bound only by their imagination. [Apr 2005, p.86]
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  11. Q Magazine
    80
    Insane, extraordinary. [Mar 2005, p.95]
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  12. Blender
    80
    This is a visceral, powerful muso's record, a nerve-jangling explosion in a drum clinic. [Apr 2005, p.111]
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  13. Paste Magazine
    80
    Frances bursts at the jewel-case hinges with Comatorium’s trademarks: musical inventiveness and wildly emotive vocals.
  14. The Wire
    80
    [An] overstuffed sound hurricane. [#255, p.58]
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  15. Rolling Stone
    80
    The Mars Volta's second album is an exhilarating transgression: concussive, nonlinear rhythms; mad-dog guitar algebra; bloody-nightmare suites sung in bilingual free verse. In short, the beastly spawn of Radiohead's OK Computer and Rush's 2112.
  16. ShakingThrough.net
    76
    Proponents of Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute will claim that anyone who doesn’t like the album simply can’t handle the lyrical depth and amazingly multi-layered musical complexity; critics who pan the release will claim it’s overlong, indulgent, and -- did we mention indulgent? The truth, as usual, falls somewhere in between.
  17. Uncut
    70
    Frances The Mute smells like another concept album, is far too long and so pretentious as to be farcial. Amazingly, it's also mighty entertaining. [Mar 2005, p.91]
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  18. The A.V. Club
    70
    On the whole, the record sounds more like the blueprint for a stunning live show than like a viable document of a top-flight hard rock band.
  19. Billboard
    70
    The 77-minute-long "Frances" unfolds upon multiple listens, sometimes threatening to collapse under its own pretensions (meandering musical passages, sound effects), but ultimately, it is an ambitious and rewarding album.
  20. New Musical Express (NME)
    70
    Within this impressive, ambitious, often stupid whole, are moments of melthing human beauty. [29 Feb 2005, p.65]
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  21. Magnet
    70
    During its most commercial moments, Frances ventures dangerously close to System Of A Down, without the nu-metal grandstanding or fake volatility. [#67, p.106]
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  22. Filter
    68
    Frances the Mute documents the Mars Volta as a passionate and explosive band that has grown capable of taking the music in a hundred different directions. [#14, p.96]
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  23. Entertainment Weekly
    67
    The CD has moments of undeniable beauty and power; it may prove to be one of those "difficult" records that repays with repeat listens. [4 Mar 2005, p.72]
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  24. The New York Times
    60
    The music combines the kitchen-sink inclusiveness of psychedelia with the swerves and jolts of the hip-hop era, to approach the ravenous eclecticism of Latin alternative rock. [27 Feb 2005]
  25. PopMatters
    60
    Discipline is a crucial factor in good progressive rock, and despite Theodore's brilliant drumming, Rodriguez's flashy guitar, and Bixler's lyrical skill, there's very little of that discipline here. [Avg of two scores: 80/40]
  26. The Guardian
    60
    You have to give them credit for ambition, though, because you're not going to find this particular witches' brew anywhere else.
  27. Dot Music
    50
    An incredibly accomplished record, a true testament to the band’s imagination, intellectual curiosity and outrageous musical talent.... Unfortunately, “Frances The Mute” is also awful.
  28. Under The Radar
    50
    Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala are fantastically talented musicians and arrangers. But until they rein in their astronomical pretension, they'll always look more important than they truly are. [#9]
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  29. Splendid
    40
    With Frances the Mute, the Mars Volta have unfurled a big and bold artistic statement... Unfortunately, that bold artistic statement is rife with pomposity and glimpses of prog-rock at its most horrifically self-indulgent.
  30. Drawer B
    30
    Everything that was great about De-Loused in the Comatorium is blatantly absent, while all of the negatives now protrude like barnacled tumors.
  31. Pitchfork
    20
    A homogeneous shitheap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity.
  32. cokemachineglow
    17
    There are hardly any virtues to this record at all.

Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Most Discussed Album of 2005
76
#76 Most Shared Album of 2005

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 348 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 299 out of 348
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 348
  3. Negative: 37 out of 348
  1. asad31
    Sep 10, 2010
    10
    This is a masterpiece. Cassandra Gemini is one of the best songs ever recorded by anyone anywhere anytime. The whole album is amazing. LoveThis is a masterpiece. Cassandra Gemini is one of the best songs ever recorded by anyone anywhere anytime. The whole album is amazing. Love the jazz influence combined with what they did on de loused. My personal favorite TMV album and maybe my favorite album of all time. You must listen to this album several times. Dont hear it once and make a decision.. it takes time to really take it all in.… Full Review »
  2. SeamusS
    Jan 23, 2006
    3
    I can honestly say I gave this album a chance. There was even one point when I thought I liked it. Then I had a sort of epiphany realizing I can honestly say I gave this album a chance. There was even one point when I thought I liked it. Then I had a sort of epiphany realizing the true terror that this album is. It's a mess. The songs slur together like something a Pinkfloyd/radiohead hybrid would make on speed. The vocals are limited, whiney and often incoherent and I dont want someone preaching to me about some deeper meaning of them. There's apparently a concept stringing the album together like some failed rock opera. The only thing I could find remotly conceptual about it was the often confusing song titles and (as always) the annoying vocals. The other thing about the album was how totally inacessable. There is little to nothing that's even remotly possible to relate to. Pretentious trash and pseudo hip Sure it might make you think It made me think I think it sucks… Full Review »
  3. piesore
    Feb 27, 2005
    5
    I was disappointed w/ Deloused, mostly in terms of the production. I thought they'd fleshed out their ideas and taken the next logical I was disappointed w/ Deloused, mostly in terms of the production. I thought they'd fleshed out their ideas and taken the next logical step from ATDi, and really loved the Alex Newport produced demos. But Rubin's final made me feel like I was listening to a piece of plastic, with the guitar and coals pushed too high in the mix. Cedric's voice was more feminine, yet more abrasive than on the demos; it annoyed me. So, there was a whole album of ideas I liked, but just not their execution. I got excited for the new album once I started to hear the vision behind it, and some of the new live jams. I thought both Caught in the Sun, and A Plague Upon Your Hissing Children were both awesome (neither made the album though). The soft progression in the Middle of Cygnus sounded great live too. And it was supposed to be about the unspeakable visions of Hell, so I was imagining a dark and disturbing soundtrack to compliment the imagery found in Dante's Inferno. Finally, the production was supposed to be a step closer to the rawness of Tremulant, and I was really expecting something as aching and moving as Concertina on FTM. But instead of one step back to the stellar heights of the Tremulant Ep, they've further moved away from the ATDi sound, completely abandoning it, which is bad news for me, an ATDi fan. I think that's why this album is creating much more of a polarized reaction among fans than Deloused, because it's like a totally different group. It's a lot closer to a classic/prog rock album, a lot more upbeat than something inspired by the unspeakable visions of hell you'd expect, with shitloads of wanking, stadium sized drums and Cedric's voice adopting a slight drawl. All the songs feel bloated, with long interludes, intros and outros, needlessly tacked on, which dilute the more powerful moments on the album. The production itself is overdone too, it's not raw at all, but now there are string sections, saxes and flutes, which come off more cheesy than overwhelming like they're supposed to. A lot of the vocals are overharmonized, which again, comes off as prog rock cheesiness. I don't dig the "OMFG! WE'RE LATIN!!!" vibe they keep trying to push more and more with each record. I can understand it's a part of who they are, but they try to make it seems like it's more of a part of them than it is. They grew up in the US and are completely whitewashed, native speakers tell me their spanish is pretty off whenever they try to use it in interviews. So, the third track makes me laugh. Half of it sounds like the Matchbox 20 and Sanata collaboration. On Concertina, the spanish verse was great, but maybe it's the way the vocals are, it just comes off as grating. To its credit, the structure of the album does fit the longer songs better than on deloused, the interludes don't sap away the energy from the song as much as they did on Deloused, like on Cicatriz and Take the Veil. It's more like a chaotic live jam with a simple riff repeated over and over, and progressions and improve based on top of that. But a lot of it, especially the last song is too much like a live jam, half of it feels like the instrumentals were made up on the spot, with random pick srapings and pianos wandering in and out of the mix. That being said, it's not really a difficult album to listen to, it's pretty much all melody, and there are verses and choruses and all the stuff you're familiar with, there are just a lot more of them, and they're a lot more long winded. The biggest disappointment with the album, is that at TMV's start, Omar said he wanted to bring some virtuosity back to punk rock, something like that. He can play better than ever now, but instead of using that skill to write more expansive and fully developed ideas, the basic structure of this album are fairly simple riffs, but with him shredding on top of everything. The more the band says it tries to distance itself from the cliches of prog rock, the more they seem to fall right into them. So, I'd say anyone aching for the ATDi sound, stay far, far away, but prog and classic rock fans will probably dig this.… Full Review »
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