30 Seconds To Mars - 'Kings And Queens'
People do make a lot of fuss when actors decide they would like to be pop stars, and with good reason. The two jobs are very, very different, and prospective performers require radically different levels of patience, ego, charisma, projection and, y'know, talent, in order to do either one properly. On the plus side, you have to be roughly the same amount of photogenic, and a nice smile never goes amiss.
The reason it's important to remember that Jared Leto is a film star AND a pop star (or, if you're a Kerrang! reader, "important rock star") is that his band's music is...well...cinematic. It's HUGE. So huge that important details could be missed if it's rendered through a comparatively weedy and rubbish domestic television set or tinny little iPod dock. The natural home of something as enormous as this is the silver screen, preferably a 500ft high drive-in job, in the middle of a desert on a starlit night, with a sound system as big as Budleigh Salterton.
(. See what I mean? It's even got CREDITS!)
Of course, this level of widescreen sonic hugeness is not unknown in modern rockular music, even from non-actors. In fact, it's surprising what a good job of becoming U2 this lot are doing: Better than U2 are, in fact.
You get the sense, from listening, that something MASSIVELY IMPORTANT is going on, something that Jared needs to HOWL AT THE BLAZING SKY about. He is so good at this that he often makes me think of a man with a flip-top head, hinged just behind the ears. His high notes are there to speak for every one of us who has found themselves needing to express an emotion which combines total FRUSTRATION with NOSTALGIA FOR THE BEST OF DAYS.
We've all been there, right? You sleep in, you spill a hot drink on your trousers, you pause to wipe toothpaste off your jumper, the cloth has jam on it, and you can't find your keys. You're sure that you used to be less bothered about such things, and you wish those times were with you still. What else is there to do but BELLOW?
This song is therefore best saved for moments when you need to feel heroic. It is also docked one star for having a pompous video, and because there are times when it sounds like the Twang having a steroid strop.
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 30th
91Èȱ¬ Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 24th Nov 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Hah nice The Twang reference. Love them. New album flopped or not released yet? Saw them on Feb and they did a couple of tracks off it, thought it sounded ok.
I think it needs another star. Great track. Love a bit of epicness every now and then!
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Comment number 2.
At 24th Nov 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Jewellery Quarter (3 August 2009) #20(UK)
Should probably investigate at some point.
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Comment number 3.
At 25th Nov 2009, harrythedog10 wrote:I don't really like it but I don't hate it, sounds like U2 sung by a load of american teenagers. The video makes me laugh though as do the lyrics.
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Comment number 4.
At 4th Dec 2009, vivalabeckster wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 5.
At 26th Dec 2009, spirit wrote:The wonderful Jared Leto also gets a namecheck in the lyrics of one of my favourite singles of the last few years...
Starlett Johannsson by The Teenagers .
Love it !
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