I hear him every night in every pore...

Mars Volta is basically for those who think System Of A Down is too commercial. But seriously, listening to Frances The Mute takes a lot of patience if not some mind-altering substance (for me, Red Bull and Vodka can do the trick). First, the album pretty much is made up of two "songs" in the conventional sense, stuck in the middle of a fugue of guitars, horns, and pretty much anything else. But those two songs kick ass. "The Widow" was the surprising hit single, being basically a dirge-like homage to someone who I got the impression was pretty much evil or depressed, depending on the amount of alcohol I've drunk. The other, "L'Via L'Vazquez is a hard-rock suite that flows from Spanish to English back again amidst the best guitar riff in a latin-styled single I've hard in a while. (Though it sounds like a hard-rock commercial for Ambien) These two are stuck in the middle of an album where the track listing on the CD has zilcho to do with the songs inside (save for the above two). The rest of the album seems like what would happen if Yes got really angry. Don't get it. Tried over and over, still don't get it. But I'm sure there's an audience for it.

Grade: C-
Best Cuts: "L'Via L'Vasquez", "The Widow"
Weakest Link: Cassandra Gemini - an eight part fugue-ness.

Buy It here.