A follow-up album is always incredibly difficult, but not for The Mars Volta.

There has finally been a second album that I can say is just as awesome as the first.  The Mars Volta has once again unleashed the talent that everyone knows they are capable of.  The newest release, “Frances the Mute,” has given listeners something to blast in the car.

The concept of mashing together indie-rock and prog-rock was never challenged until now.  Prog-Rockers Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta have amazed our listening ears again with the release of “Frances the Mute.”  The Mars Volta has been the only band I am aware of that can truly connect different sounds and use different techniques to make good music.

Drawing attention to themselves through their first release, “De-Loused in the Comatorium,” I am reluctant to say that former At the Drive-In members Zavala and Lopez have become better in the two years since De-Loused was released.  The Mars Volta also drew attention for their technical skill, but underneath the meter changes and 32^nd-note polyrhythms, De-Loused presented some memorable melodies.

From the first album, we recognize in “Frances the Mute” that The Mars Volta isn’t trying to change their sound, but continue to make themselves different from others.  The album continues to put itself out there and make itself different from all the new releases in that week.

Now with the release of “Frances the Mute,” The Mars Volta has taken prog-rock to another level of amazingness.  A constant reminder of Led Zepellin, The Mars Volta have taken hold of the idea of combining first-album sounds and bilingual lyrics.  The song, “Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus,” for example is in both Spanish and English, something not many artists do today.

Unlike their previous album, The Mars Volta has made separate and small parts for each song.  The tracks in “Frances the Mute” are long songs that are marked as songs divided into small sections.  Again, this makes The Mars Volta so different from the rest, and is why listeners respect and admire them so much.

I would have to say the new album, “Frances the Mute,” is a complete success.  I would definitely recommend it if you liked the last album, De-Loused.  The new album will provide memorable songs just as the first did, and I guarantee the song that will be played the most and listened to the most will be the catch song, “The Widow.”

With reviews from numerous music magazines, it has received nothing more but great reviews, and it is an excellent follow up.  If I were to rate this album I’d definitely give it five stars.