FRANCES THE MUTE

A few things to note: This CD has a lot of "Down-time." It has a lot of psuedo-ambient transitional material that was left in the CD for some reason. I know that it is in the interest of prog to meander around with sound, but there is a time when that just goes too far. Seriously, does anyone really listen to the last 20 minutes of Delerium Cordia? That being said, it becomes apparent why this was true. If you set the CD cases for De-Loused... and Frances... down next to each other and look at the producers, you will see Rick Rubin on De-Loused... and Omar on Frances... Now, Rick Rubin is a very famous producer; some say he is one of the best. Omar, well, he's Omar. The difference between producers was ultimately a difference of self-expression. I guess Omar and Cedric decided that they would rather make their own sound than rely on someone else for interpretation. For this reason, I can't really fault them for what they did, but it decidedly hurts their sound. If, hypothetically, Rick Rubin had signed on to Frances the Mute, they would have, most likely, sacrificed the ability to have Cassandra Gemini (due to its prolonged prog style.) For me, this album is a great landmark in modern prog, but shows the new problematic with record production. A little slicing and dicing and this could have been immortalized in the annals of prog history forever.

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