It's still one of the funniest things to me that the band couldn't spare a single second of the ambient noise, bug sounds, etc to make room for the title track to their album. Despite how ridiculous that is, the principle behind that decision is really what makes Frances the Mute so great in the first place, with how meticulous and considered every single second of the album's sprawling runtime is. "Cassandra Gemini" is maybe the greatest prog rock song of all time. Frusciante rips "L'Via L'Viaquez" to pieces and in a weird way the song helped open me up to latin music more than prior. "Cygnus Vismund Cygnus" is absolutely destructive. There's not much I can say about this other than just how important it is to me. I still remember going to Best Buy in Snellville and buying the CD. I wore the CD out for years. I still remember putting that CD into the iMac in the Music Tech lab at Brookwood High School and rocking out to it. The teacher, Mr. Simpson, came over all upset I was listening to music and put the headphones on to see just what was so important, and "Cassandra Gemini" blasting into his ears. Even he couldn't maintain his anger at me, practically screaming "Oh my god! They are so tight!" over the din. Yes, they are, Mr. Simpson. Yes, they are.
Reviewed on Thursday, January 12th, 2023, 9:20am.
More music →