Is Frances the Mute the Best Concept Album of All Time? | J. Powell Music
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2022
- In this video, J. Powell opens up the conversation of Frances the Mute album by the Mars Volta. He gives it praise and considers doing a deep dive series.
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To answer your question: Yes.
Now you have to go and listen to Frances the Mute, which is the single, and personally I think goes after Cygnus and before Widow. This is the key to the album, as the band has said before. The main lyrics in question are: "This never happened, but I saw you leave, and crawl into a bed of broken window." Now, most fans thinks this means that Cygnus was never born or died during childbirth and this whole album is Frances' way of explaining that to herself. If her child had lived he may have gone on to do some monstrous things. It was her coping mechanism for his death.
I'll have to check it out! Thank you for the recommendation and comment!
i always imagined it as being that cygnus imagined the whole thing and is insane
It was going to be the first track before Cygnus but they left it out cause of "time constraints"
I also like the somewhat meta detail that the Frances single was cut off from the whole album similar to how in the story, Frances was killed.
@@aidanireton127yeah that was the intention. The lable gave the band all sorts of sh*t. They had to break up Cassandra Gemini into a number of tracks to get paid for an album of content. Label threatened to pay them just for an EP. Absolute joke.
Between Cassandra Gemini and the title track that was cut from the final album, those two songs hold such a special place in my heart. I've been listening to the Mars Volta since I was 14 and now I'm 35 and I still can't step away from them. Deloused, Frances, Amputechture, and the Bedlam in Goliath are so amazing, and all in their own separate ways.
Amputechture and Bedlam aren't nearly as good as the first two. It really gets worse every album: De-Loused = perfect; Frances = nearly perfect; Amputechture = very good; Bedlam = straight-forward solid rock album but nothing special
@@osirisra1476 amputechture belongs to be up there with the others
@@osirisra1476 check the story for Goliath it involves a haunted ouija board. It's on CZcams.
What songs aren't on the album? I've never heard of songs not on the album, but this is my favorite album of all time!
Cassandra Gemini is a masterpiece
Frances The Mute litteraly changed my way to hear music and taste. It is probably one of the best album of post 95’-00 . So great tracks and memories.
The title track that isn’t on the album is my personal favorite… LOVE the whole last half
What songs aren't on the album? I've never heard of songs not on the album, but this is my favorite album of all time!
What’s funny about them making concept albums is that they actually admitted recently that they weren’t mentally in a place to be vulnerable enough to know how to explain their situations and mental health at the time so they made deloused about their friend who committed suicide.
Great Zappa comparison! Definitely true.
Frances The Mute will always be one of my favorite albums.
One of the greatest albums ever.
Absolutely!
Here is a good synopsis of the album explaining the origin of the concept of FTM. It was taken from Omar's record label site that was translated from an Italian magazine interview Omar and Cedric did. It is from 2005:
Posted 04 January 2005The Mars Volta's Frances The Mute is NOT a "sequel" to 2003's De-Loused In The Comatorium. Yes it builds a story around the memory of a dear departed friend--but the similarities end there. Where De-Loused© was a finite sci-fi narrative that took place entirely in an imaginary universe created for the story (and rife with vocabulary peculiar to the story at hand created by Bixler-Zavalas), Frances© transpires in the real world, inspired by a diary found by late bandmate Jeremy Ward (R.I.P.) and the similarity of the anonymous author's life to his own.
"The story is inspired by a diary that Jeremy found in the backseat of a car while working as a repo man," singer/lyricist Bixler-Zavala. "He discovered he had a lot in common with its author. He kept it and let us in on it. The diary told of the author being adopted and looking for his real parents. The names of each song are named after people in the diary. Each person he meets sort of points him in the direction of his biological parents.
"Every work of music or art is going to reflect your experiences and feelings at the time," Omar adds. "This record was obviously influenced by the trauma of losing Jeremy. But Cedric consciously omitted anything with too much clarity or resolution, It's like when he was singing 'Now I'm lost©' on the first record: It could be literal or it could apply to anything!
"This could have been a much angrier record. When we made the last record, Julio (Venegas, band friend and mentor whose life and death inspired De-Loused©) had already been dead for 10 years. These feelings and experiences were much more fresh. But we didn't want it to be that literal. And there are things about it we don't want to share, that would be too personal or redundant to even talk about©"
"It's a story of abandonment and addiction," Cedric concludes. "As to whether any of it really happened is not certain. That's something best suited for the listener to figure out. We can only provide the pieces."© Which leaves Frances The Mute to do the talking. Featuring the first in-studio foray of the finely honed Mars Volta live machine and Omar's first time in the producer's chair, Frances© is basically five interconnected songs (the band considers silence between songs "a distraction© like if there were gaps between every scene in a movie"): Trademark Volta crescendos of opener "Cygnus© Vismund Cygnus" dissolve amidst a cacophony of electronic pulses and ambient washes of surf--or are they highway?--background noise, giving way to majestic ballad "The Widow," which itself splinters and careens into the powerhouse stomp of "L'Via L'Viaquez," a showstopper highlighted by career defining performances from every member of the band: Bixler-Zavalas' hair-raising en Espanol vocal, Rodriguez-Lopez' guitar speaking in tongues, drummer Jon Theodore alternately invoking Bonham's ghost and taking backseat to half-tempo salsa grooves conjured by bassist Juan Alderete- De la Pena , keyboardist Ikey Owens and newest member Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez Dive in at the 3:45 mark and tell me you're not listening to the classic rock of the future. "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" hits full rock throttle around the eight-minute mark before concluding with several minutes of Morricone-esque atmospherics and segueing into the explosive intro of "Cassandra Gemini," kicking off a 32-minute epic that ultimately returns to the opening motif of "Cygnus©" thus rounding out the five-song 75-plus minute epic.
Despite familiar trappings such as colorful aliases for amalgams of real-life and fictionalized characters (the title character is the birth mother of protagonist Cygnus), Frances© is a much more organic and reality-rooted experience-it even has a moral: "You learn so much about people from their roots. If I meet my friends' mothers and fathers, I learn so much more about them. That's a big aspect of this story. But if there's a moral to the story, it's the main character's discovery of the meaning of family: He learns that family is the people around you that care about you and that you care about-not necessarily people you're tied to by blood."
My man! 🎉✊🏾 I was hoping for you to comment lol. So based on this for FTM the concept is around Cygnus trying to find family. I didn't know the diary found belonged to Jeremy so that is very interesting. It seems like the entertaining reddit thread is more so a fan made theory than the actual synopsis. Bummer lol. Thank you so much for this! Let me know if you find anything else!
@@j.powellnetwork the fan theory around the story is still very plausible, and I agree with a lot of it. Cedric said that a lot of the lyrics were done on the spot when they were doing recording sessions. He tends to "speak in tongues" while making up melodies and kinda has an idea of lyrics that he has conjured up through stories he has already thought about or worked out while jamming/improvising live.
The story in the album is very cryptic and fairly ambiguous which makes it open to interpretation, but with the titles of the songs hinting at the main characters of the story. I feel Vismund Cygnus being the orphan child that was supposed to be aborted looking for his mother and finding blood relatives that start to connect the dots while he deals with his drug addiction and dealing with multiple personality disorder (maybe drug/HIV induced or scitzophrenic) and seeking out revenge and in the end either actually doing horrible things or dreaming them. In the end realizing that blood relation does not matter, the people who raise/care for you do, but tragically when it's too late.
Cautionary tale for sure. Also, there was a title track that you may know about that did not fit on the album and then became a metaphor for the story as something the listener had the lyrics for on the back of the CD cover, but had to search for and find the song to actually hear the story. The Song "Frances The Mute" works as an origin story of sorts where the listener is finds it after they hear the album, although it fits as the missing puzzle piece that could kick off the album. Cool stuff.
I don't know how you'd want to do it, but a deep dive into each song is fun, but having an idea of the full story first will allow you to not be as lost when trying to decipher each song. Obviously you have heard the album many times before, but it could be fun to share our interpretations along the way!
Great synopsis- I love your Mars Volta analysis
I always listened to The Mars Volta. I don't think I was aware that DeLoused had been released. But I already had Tremulant Ep. But I listened to all of their albums as they all came out. A lot.
this may be one of the most important albums of our generation
Absolutely 🙌🏾
The lore I was told by my uncle is one of them was a tow truck driver and they had found a diary in one of the repoed cars and made an album of all the characters within the diary
A close second, behind their debut album.
I gotta go with Parallax: Future Sequence by BTBAM. Frances and Deloused are certainly in the conversation though.
great breakdown!
My top 5 concept albums. Listen if you haven't heard them
Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
The Dear Hunter - Act 2 .....Ms. leading....
Dr. Octagon- the Octagynacologist
Flaming Lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots
Kendrick Lamar - GOOD KID MAAD CITY
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
You mentioned Zappa. Joes Garage is my favorite. Besides being hilarious and a bit proactive it has a great concept that I understood even at a young age.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness should be a contender for first also, but Tmv just kill it
Yes.
A deep dive sounds great - i've subsribed
Thank you!
Check out the Deep Dive of the Album Here! czcams.com/video/8-v8vdrDQ2o/video.html
also listen to napoleon solo by at the drive in for the full story
I absolutely sell I love with the concept of bedlam in Goliath as well.
I'm actually not privy of the concept of bedlam. I just know what happened behind the scenes lol
Pink Floyd’s the wall or even tommy by the who I could name is up there
I am another Frances the Mute Stan. I specifically want to hear your thoughts on Cassandra Gemini
Yes, it's one of the best albums of all time, up there with Zeppelin IV, Alice in Chains's Dirt, Opeth's Ghost Reveries, Porcupine Tree's Deadwing, and Tool's 10,000 Days.
Definitely Agree! Thank you for mentioning Porcupine Tree! They are so good and underrated to me.
Lateralus, Ænima, Fear Inoculum > 10,000 Days
Fear of a Blank Planet, In Absentia > Deadwing
@@BittersweetDualityAnd Lateralus > both of them.
@@Clooger- Absolutely. It’s my favorite album of all time
It is by far aside from Thom Yorke genius… the most well compose pieces of work I’ve ever heard in my life and should be recognized for the fact that this was a diary, from who knows when out of some man’s attic in another country that they managed to get a message out that gave you goosebumps when no one even knows what the diary was truly about. If that isn’t creative genius, I don’t know what is. And then to top it off it ends exactly where it starts so like mars Volta just loops I love it genius.
🐐
In short, yes. I believe Cassandra Gemini is also greatest prog epic in the history of the genre. I put it just above Close to the Edge and Suppers Ready.
My favorite concept album of the 21st century easily!!!!!
I'd like to see a video from you about Cassandra Gemini
Indeed
Great music - very waffly video.
So, what's a concept album? Is that the same as an album, except with crossfades, and also one of the songs happens twice?
From my understanding a concept album is where instead of just an assortment of songs, each song has a context to a narrative/story for the entire project. Great examples are The Roots Album Undun, Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Beyonce's Lemonade, etc.
So are you ever going to make the deep dive video into Frances?
Great Question! Some "Life" stuff happened but I will be working on it soon
@j.powellnetwork Please please do! Thank you. It would be so cool if you did a deep dive on at least Frances, but even the first four or five albums would be epic! I would love to hear your findings and interpretation of Bedlam.
Don't even have to see the video to say: Yes.
It is
I am a huge TMV fan. And i love the album Frances the Mute. Still i feel like King Diamond "Them" is my favorite concept album.
I think Dream Theater’s Scenes from a Memory is greatest concept album ever. Although I love Frances the Mute as well.
I think it's a very good concept album but I kinda prefer De Loused as the stronger of the two - something just makes me feel kinda bad for Jon Theodore - I can imagine him losing his mind with these guys even at this point. De Loused is just kinda stronger overall even if it's not as out there as Francis. I only feel this way with the amount of hindsight we have with where Jon ended up now. He's in Queens and even if this is the weakest phase of Queens in their career at least he can actually hit hard and groove and be with people who aren't going to treat him like shit. I wish Mars Volta had catered to his strenghts and not just the vision of going as out there as possible. That's what makes De Loused great for me: It's really the entire band actually making it work with each other - even if creatively it isn't as crazy as Francis, it might just be a better record overall. I wish They had kept Jon, not treated him badly and just made Bedlam as if they needed to come back to earth and not totally lose it like they would go on to do.
That being said I'm glad the band is back, albeit with a new rhytm section again - it's just good to see them kinda doing the thing I wanted them to do - even if its the yacht rock version of the thing I wanted them to do lol
There's no doubt De-Loused is superior to Frances. It's more cohesive, has higher highs *and* higher lows. Frances is great but has a few moments of being a little too navel-gazey in comparison.
@@osirisra1476 preach
This era of queens is actually my favourite by quite a long way, I love songs for the deaf but other than that the last 3 albums are my favourites
No, I literally have no idea what he is talking about even after reading the lyrics. Definitely need explanation. That being said I love this album and Mars. Noctourniquet is better in my opinion.
SI!
Deloused at the crematorium is
Frances the mute is quite possibly in the running for greatest of all time in general
comparing Omar to zappa is a great take, I think the first mars volta album is the greatest concept album tho, maybe rush...rush is pretty good too
It is……. after sgt. peppers
*Laughs in Pink Floyd - The Wall*
And then you have The Wall by Pink Floyd. Not sure I have to say anything about this one. 2112, Rush.
Francis may be the best of our time, but not of all time.
Well.... Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV also Exists.
That’s a plain & simple No. they don’t even think it is.
No but it's pretty close dawg
No, but it is a great album
maybe not "the best", but definitely the most creepy
id say deloused is the better concept album
Not even their best concept album
Really? Which album do you think is better that they've made?
Please don't take over 2 minutes to get to the point. Bad podcasting.
A point that has multiple points? Maybe this isn't the right content for you.
@@j.powellnetwork You're competing for attention. If it takes you 2+ minutes to get to the title of the video, you're doing it wrong.
@@j.powellnetwork While he is right you're competing for attention on the web, your response was legend. Here's to the people with some attention span to use for things they are interested in hearing.
no, it isn't
No, it is not.
Let me guess, dark side of the moon would be your pick
@@diljoe9678 nice try. I think Frances the Mute is a superb record, I just hate CZcams videos that are titled with a clickbaity question like this one, and there are better concept albums than Frances the Mute.
@@tangentfish you’re right, amputechture is the best concept album
@@communionshaped ooh burn! You chose the name of another Mars Volta record and made it sound like I meant that. Pat yourself on the back for that one, you won the internet today.
@@tangentfish i’m glad you understood the joke and were able to thoroughly explain it for others to understand!!! how kind
It's the horns..... instruments.. czcams.com/video/7OvW8Z7kiws/video.html this song grabs me. I dont know any of their music but this song grabs me cause of the horns and the tempo and the just its there.. those of US in the know depend on things that allow us to focus our deeper so our in the moment thinking can focus.
The horns are definitely captivating!