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30 SECONDS TO MARS IMMORTAL RECORDS  There are fewer things we dismiss faster than actors masquerading as musicians. See: Bruce Willis See also: Russell Crowe, Kevin Bacon, Keanu Reeves... The proof, unfortunately, is in the pudding. Sure, some of them experience modest success as musicians, but does it actually have anything to do with their music? Not really, no. Most of the time their success comes from trading off on their popularity as actors. Is anybody out there really waiting for Bruno to return again? So what happens if you're for real? What if you're an actor and your band is actually good? What then? Ask Jared Leto. You know Jared Leto. You know him as the pretty boy blonde who gets pummeled toothless and bloody by Edward Norton in Fight Club (“I wanted to destroy something beautiful”) or as not-so-bright but gorgeous-as-hell Jordan Catellano from My So Called Life (“Where's Tino?”) or as running prodigy Prefontaine in the movie of the same name. The list goes on. Mr. Leto has a problem... He can actually sing and the band he fronts, 30 Seconds To Mars, is actually good. That's quite the dilemma. Sounding like the bastard child of Maynard James Keenan and The Cure's Robert Smith, Leto succeeds where so many other actors before him failed... He gives us a reason to take him seriously. With no mention of his name in their press bio and Jared Leto playing the low-key, farthest-from-the-camera band member in their press picture, 30 Seconds and everybody involved with them seems to have gone to great lengths to let us know that this is about the band first, the singer second, the fact that the singer is Jared Leto third. Though Leto's voice does appear to have a limited range, the music is wrapped so tightly around it that you neither notice or care. Surrounded by solid and talented musicians (especially guitarist Solon Bixler) Leto's voice serves as the final element in the textured musicianship of the band, integrated into the layered construction of each song as seamless as every other audio element. Across the entire album, but especially on songs like “93 Million Miles,” their first single “Capricorn” and “The Mission,” the music is nearly tactile. With titles fixating on space it occurs the music might easily have been written there. Almost ambient, the sound of 30 Seconds invites comparison to a more synthesized version of Tool. 30 Seconds To Mars is a solid debut that is best listened to with a set of headphones. There's just too much going on in these songs that you're likely to miss on your stereos speakers. There are fewer things we dismiss faster than actors masquerading as musicians. Don't even think about doing that here; it'd be your loss if you did.. review by scott sisti |
