A Beautiful Lie - EMI
By:  Tammy Amaral
November 2005
Mote MGZN

For anyone who might not know, Jared Leto is the lead singer of a band called 30 Seconds To Mars. What you also might not know is that he, and the rest of the group, aren't half bad. We're all familiar with actors who want to be singers, singers who want to be actors and everything else in between and how often these little side projects fail.

However, if you manage to look past Leto's Hollywood affiliation and leading lady romances you'll discover some pretty decent musical talent. 30 Seconds To Mars consists of Leto, his brother Shannon, Matt Wachter, and Tomo Milicevic and the quartet have come a long way since their debut self-titled album, which was released in August 2002 to little fare.

This time around it feels like the group has stopped treating their music like some side project and really put a legitimate effort towards it.

I went into this album with expectations of incoherent lyrics put to regurgitated musical arrangements. I was also a bit hesitant to give it a listen since it was being released on a major label, let's just say I was pleasantly surprised, mostly by Leto's voice. It's not extremely unique or different by any means but it's the way his voice carries the song and really makes the listener feel what the group is trying to emote with the lyrics.

They've also stopped trying to be a metal band and leaned towards more of a rock sound, which better compliments Leto's vocal capabilities. This album is filled with melodic, emotional songs that aren't riveting or awe-worthy, but they are solid tunes. "The Kill" is one of my favourite songs off the album simply for Leto's voice and the pace of the song, but if you're going for lyrical content "From Yesterday" is the one you want to listen to.

There are two hidden tracks on this album, "The Battle of One" and "Hunter," that are quite different from the tone of the rest of the album, but I think it's a nice punch to round out the record. The only thing about this album that's disappointing is that you can't listen to it from beginning to end too frequently; otherwise all the songs start to sound the same and you'll become bored with it very quickly.