Cases in point: Keanu Reeves, Russell Crowe and Bruce Willis.
Jared Leto (”My So-Called Life,“ ”Requiem for a Dream“) takes the same route, with mixed results.
30 Seconds to Mars plays epic arena rock. Every song sounds big. These guys obviously listen to a lot of prog rock. The problem? It takes them about 30 seconds to go from sounding inspired to sounding pretentious.
The album opener, ”Attack,“ is pretty catchy, with a cool keyboard pattern and Leto's impressive vocals. Alas, it just gets overblown in the end. The single ”A Beautiful Lie“ is radio-ready, but it's actually one of the weaker tracks.
”The Fantasy“ has potential: It starts up-tempo with a great chorus, but eventually winds down into weird, melodramatic dreck. Mellow tracks like ”The Story“ fair better.
The problem is, it sounds like these guys are trying too hard ... as if Leto is screaming to the world, ”I'm not just an actor, I'm a musician; pay attention to me!“
Pandering is not pretty.
A lot of strange stuff is going on here: a made-up hieroglyphic language, cryptic lyrics, shout-outs in the liner notes to Jesus Christ, Ron Hubbard and Dr. Seuss. It's obvious 30 Seconds to Mars is operating on another planet.
Even so, with time I can see this group producing a good album.
”A Beautiful Lie“ just isn't it.