Franco - Cydonia Mensae

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Artist:	Franco
Title:	Cydonia Mensae
Label:	Shouting Colours Publishing
Length(s):	52 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2000
Month of review:	05/2000

Line up

Franco - lead vocals, guitars, keyboards
Sasha Tucash - drums
Tim Langan - bass

Tracks

1)	Raising Caine	5.55
2)	Cydonia Mensae	6.24
3)	Twisted Fusion	5.49
4)	Red Blood	4.22
5)	Diamond Rust	6.37
6)	Godzilla	6.34
7)	With You Again	6.26
8)	Save It	5.16
9)	Tornado Dreams	4.13

Summary

Hailing from Canada, Frank La Magna is Franco who with Cydonia Mensae recorded at least three discs. The Cydonia by the way is the "face" as it can be seen on pictures of Mars (according to the bio, the intelligence that created it is called Mensae).

The music

Opening with something akin to didgeridoo, Raisiing Caine (I guess it should be Raising Caine) is a plodding rock track, that will remind some of Led Zeppelin. The music is a bit more melodious though. The vocals are okay, but sound a bit far away in the mix and maybe a bit flat. This might have been done on purpose to put more focus on the music. The intermezzo has acoustic guitar and somewhat choral like keyboards. An accessible rock track, well written, varied and with some good melodies. The title track opens with female voices and gets underway in mid-tempo. The vocalist now sounds a bit as though he's singing in a large shower, a bit hollow. The vocal parts are quite relaxed on this track, but after the chorus the music becomes more forceful and melodic. This track is a bit hazy and doesn't strike me to be as good as the opener. Back to the rock with Twisted Fusion. It also has some sliding guitar work in the middle however and a quiet interlude between the plodding rock parts. It seems Franco is more at home in these songs. Red Blood is another good track, with some Bon Jovi overtones even, but the song is also the most melodic of the tracks up to now with plenty opf keyboards. Because of the female vocals and the way it is sung, the optimistic sounding Diamond Rust sounds rather like Floyds Comfortably Numb (in parts that is) with some bombastic terrific keyboards and a great guitar solo. The songs keep on getting more likable (and maybe even better, but that is "objective"). Godzilla opens in neo-classical style and even calls to mind RIO music. Rather complex until it dissolves into a riff dominated rock passage and the violin (synthetic I guess) calls Kansas to mind. In this instrumental track these various parts are alternated without making the track sound disjointed. Film music comes to mind. The next track is a low-tempo piece that reminds me in the vocals phrasings of Summer In The City (but keeping it low-key). The chorus is quite different however, being ballad like, something that the title With You Again. The song does have some surprises in store though in the middle part including a string like intermezzo and conclusion. Save It is again a rock track with some typically Emersonian keyboards and a soaring guitar. The closer is Tornado Dreams a plodding forceful piece with a starring role for the electric guitar.

Conclusion

A likable album of melodic rock with quite a few pointers to some progressive rock acts (Floyd, ELP even) and overall highly melodic. There's actually very little "straight rock" on this album. In the rock parts Led Zeppelin often comes to mind, possibly because of the plodding qualities of the music. Some people may not like the somewhat flat vocals of Franco, but if you don't mind Roine Stolt singing, than this should also not be a problem, because Franco has a more expressive voice. It did not disturb me. However, it seems that productionally more attention could be paid to the recording of the vocals, because they seem a bit hollow in a way. On the other hand it does take some focus from the vocals and this might have been the idea. Notwithstanding this small criticism an appealling album with good songwriting and good melodies.