It’s too bad you can’t hear their Afros bouncing.
With 2003’s De-Loused in the Comatorium, big-haired Mars Volta vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez had a funky funeral for their experimental punk-rock group At the Drive-In, a quintet that broke up as soon as it broke into the mainstream in 2000.
The new group’s debut garnered Bixler-Rodriguez-Lopez some indie street cred, even though the prog-rock revivalists were still described as emo-singing punk rockers. And in Frances the Mute, Mars Volta digs its teeth even deeper into the prog-rock pioneered by Rush and Yes.
In Frances, Bixler-Zavala and company delve into a sea of spacious art-rock, splashing waves of salsa, funk and prog, prog, prog. Bixler-Zavala’s soaring tenor makes the album’s first and likely only single, “The Widow,” an irresistible song. With a similar gracefulness, Rodriguez-Lopez’ guitars make for swirling guitar shredding in the 12-minute “L’Via L’Viaquez.”
The 5-track, more than 100-minute long concept album Frances is undeniably intelligent work. For God’s sake, Bixler-Zavala sends listeners to pick up translation dictionaries with his English and Spanish lyrics and Latin track titles. Is Mars Volta being ambitious with Frances? Yes. It’s also pretentious as hell.
