30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie
By Kristen
Brown
Week of March 03, 2006
CD Reviews
Credit: Aitana
Every once in awhile I come across an
album that I really want to like. I like the concept, I like the vision—and I
might even like the band. But unfortunately, for one reason or another, the
album doesn’t quite live up to the fantastic promise I held for it, that being a
happy union between good music and a nice concept. Good music can survive
without a good concept, but the concept of an album isn’t nearly enough to make
it decent, no matter how much you want it to. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how
I feel about 30 Seconds to Mars’ A Beautiful Lie.
The idea of the brainchild of an actor-turned-musician actually not sinking into
the musical depths of despair and embarrassment is a novel and amazing concept.
In most cases, so many mediocre actors create such awfully quasi-mediocre music,
that it’s almost disturbing. For example, take Russell Crowe’s 30 Odd Foot of
Grunts, and Keanu Reeves’ Dogstar. And I need not mention David Hasselhoff’s
music career—although I hear he’s very popular in
But all my crushed hopes and dreams aside, A Beautiful Lie isn’t anywhere near
as disastrous as anything I’ve heard by 30 Odd Foot of Grunts or Dogstar. In
fact, it’s really not bad at all—30 Seconds to Mars has potential to one day
make that fantastic rock album I’d hoped for them. However, it seems to me they
might be trying just a little too hard with their sophomore release. Granted,
they definitely have a handful of solid songs on the album that are undeniably
VH1-friendly, and worthy of getting stuck in your head for a few hours, such as
“Attack,” “The Kill,” “A Modern Myth,” and “From Yesterday.” However, they all
come with a loud, large-scale drama that overtakes the entire album and fills up
any room there might be for subtleties with overwrought emotion. And to
accompany the unmistakable attention-hungry tendencies of A Beautiful Lie is a
variety of vocal Olympics. Leto’s voice ranges from breathy in “The Fantasy” and
lazy and crooning on “Was it a Dream?” to a rather impressive loud, angry scream
that makes an appearance in “Attack,” “From Yesterday,” and “A Modern Myth” and
threatens to induce bleeding from the ears. While there is a time and a place
for screaming in rock, A Beautiful Lie just doesn’t seem heavy enough to carry
the intensity of loud, angry vocals. What’s most disappointing is that Leto has
the vocal ability to carry an album without the theatrics and vocal drama, as
shown in “The Story,” but for some reason that is beyond my comprehension, feels
it is necessary to exercise his voice as much as possible, rather than stick to
a “less is more” philosophy.
While 30 Seconds to Mars may not have hit a total home run with A Beautiful Lie,
they definitely show space for improvement. Aside from the sense that the album
needs to impress, 30 Seconds to Mars has a good sound, which could even be
compared to Our Lady Peace’s Gravity, or even Default. Given some time and
evolution, they might have a great album to go with their great concept, and
once and for all the horrible reputation of the actor-gone-musician will manage
to save itself. But for now, at least, Jared Leto has given the genre a shred of
dignity to hold onto. Keep an eye on them—they might just surprise you one of
these days.