Another Week Another Vinyl: The Mars Volta: Frances the Mute

The Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute easily stands as my favorite album of the past decade, and one of my favorite albums of all time. Frances the Mute was on such a heavy rotation during my freshman year of college I’m shocked I don’t hate it by now. Even after hundreds of listens I always feel like I’m finding something new to appreciate. It’s such a rich and well crafted album that transcends so many genres it might as well be a genre unto itself.

A website called Vinyl Collective has been auctioning off their vinyl inventory on a weekly basis for nearly two months now. There are some nice finds for cheap, but Frances the Mute seems to be the vinyl fetching the highest bids. They’ve listed copies of Frances the Mute consistently since the second week of auctions. Each week I’ve been hoping to snag it for a reasonable price, but it’s always soaring out of my range. Then recently came a point where I decided I would just have to fork over a little bit more than I was initially willing to give up, and subsequently, I won the auction.

The package is incredible, and is probably the nicest package I own. It’s an original pressing - brand new - on three 180g black vinyls. Out of the six sides, five have music and on the rear of the third disc is some awesome etched artwork. As the norm with all Mars Volta records, the artwork on the jacket is incredible. Each vinyl is stored in durable black sleeves with some artsy photos and lyrics. In typical Volta fashion, each side of the first two discs is a locked groove. A locked groove is essentially a constant loop of the end of the final track - or whatever bar of music the band wishes to implement. The only side which institutes the normal run-off is the fifth and final side. I’m not sure if I love it or hate it, but I give them credit for being unique.

This set is incredible and considering how important this album is to me musically, it was worth the price of entry. It sounds great, it looks great and really I don’t have a single gripe - I guess I could complain about the lack of a free download but I had already owned the album and I bought the vinyl version around seven years after it was released, so the free download would probably have been well expired by now. The Mars Volta know how to make a great vinyl package, and Frances the Mute is a testament to that.

(If I ever get a chance, I'll post some pictures of the entire set)