Dunno if its just me but this album seems too drawn out. Yeah its good but too much wanking about going on. In my opinion De-Loused was far better and still had the wankery.

That makes no sense what so ever.

Pitchfork are right. It's not all that good. I mean, it's still good, but album of the year? Best prog album ever? or whatever other superalitives that are being tossed at it (and off) are overstepping the mark somewhat.

i LOVE the idea of someone calling someone else pretentious for not liking a band whose new album comes in 5 'suites' and has track names like 'Pisacis (Phra-men-ma)' and 'Umbilical Syllables'.

Seriously.

Amusing.

I quite liked ATDI, though they were a little too like Fugazi with Nu guitars. When MV came out I was away working for most of the summer so missed out on the press and radio play and didn't get it shoved down my neck by any mates. While it might seem heresy on this board, I've only really heard this band for the first time when this album was played to me and I did jump cartwheels, checked to see the DiS review and didn't find one so put one up sharpish.

While I know that those who don't like frenetic rock won't like the record (it probably isn't going to appeal to Keane/Coldplay/Athlete fans or the nu-folk acoustic brigade) For me it's an album to listen to over and over and over and become obsessed by. I'm no fan of wanky prog pomposity. I've been gradually going off Muse as they get progressively more melodramatic and less song based.
5 is because I rate the record up with Jane's 'Ritual...' which is one of my all time favourites. 5 is for the Cartwheels, for the desperation to play it to every single person who has set foot in my place and the desperation to get a review up. Sometimes listening to this album feels like being rolled down a hill in a barrel full of bricks....and I'm one of those who loves that feeling.

And what, pray, is wrong with incoherent noise?

The only Zep thing about this is the vocals, but they have at least as much in common with Jeff Buckley. The rhythm section of the band is nothing like Zep. They were never hectic.

I don't think a band has to sonically move the goalposts to be considered new. Fact is there is almost nothing that hasn't been done before, so all a band can do is set out to express themselves as fully as possible. Since every bunch of human beings sounds different, every band who really express themselves as comprehensively as MV will be 'new'. Many bands tend to stick to formulas, like many of the new wave-ish indie lot at the moment, and I'd be the first to stand up and shout about ripping off old things (at the moment practically every UK band has 'Robert Smith', 'Terry Hall' or 'Ian Curtis' as their lead singer).

While I can hear the vocal influences, for instance, I wouldn't label Bixler as a copyist. That's just the way he sounds when he sustains notes... if it's Plant-y or Buckley-ey then lucky him, he could have sounded like Gary Barlow

Reading all of the comments... see I LIKE the fact that the songs are drawn out into long long jams and instrumentals (I LOVE Can). Perhaps the Can part is the key... THe Krautrock bands were probably the most out-and-out experimental genre around. Every subsequent bunch of mad scientists, from Sonic Youth up, has worked with ideas pioneered by those bands... but Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, Einsturzende Neubauten...even Yello.... they're nothing like Yes, King Crimson, Rush, Floyd... who were a lot more academic and deliberate and far too ridden with long solos for my liking.

That's spot on. I suppose it says more about what music you like in general, but I prefer De-Loused. Yet, the songs on Frances are superb, but they just don't last long enough before you hear 4 minutes of what sounds like a bird chirping. If I wanted to hear that I'd move to the country and open a window.

In saying that, in Birmingham they were brilliant.

I find it difficult to trust someone who cites Janes addiction as making one of the albums of the last decade.

True, this album is excellent but I believe that compared to de-loused in the comatorium it dosen't stand a chance. Frusicante's solo's are over worked, and out of place on a Volta album! The first album was fresher and had more of a kick to it.