CD Reviews

30 Seconds To Mars -

A BEAUTIFUL LIE

Ladies and gentlemen, "My So Called Life"'s Jared Leto really can sing. The proof is on his band 30 Seconds To Mars' sophomore album A Beautiful Lie, where Leto's voice eerily resembles that of Our Lady Peace's frontman Raine Maida, albeit with more of a penchant for the ever popular pretty-boy-rock screech as perfected by Dashboard Confessional.

The titular track "A Beautiful Lie" delves into the story of a relationship gone sour, in which Leto croons, "I've got to remember/this is just a game." At one point Leto stops singing altogether and begins to talk in a paranoid whisper.

The slightly mellower "Was It A Dream?" doesn't seem to belong on this album. The track is paced much more slowly than the others and Leto doesn't screech once. Also the song reaches almost–shudder–"emo" heights as it is highlighted by the sound of raindrops.

With the track Savior the band tries to be philosophical with lyrics like "Don't save me/because I don't care." Even though the lyrics are a tad lame, the song it itself, with nearly overwhelming drums and a solid bass, is not.

30 Seconds To Mars offers up, as a bonus track, a cover of Björk's "Hunter." While it may be a cardinal sin to cover any Björk song, Leto's voice blends perfectly with the her masterful lyrics to create a very honorable homage.

Most of the tracks on this album are extremely similar and follow a certain pattern of guitar intro, Jared Leto croons–then screeches–as the pace quickens until the song comes to a complete halt.

However, it's done so well that, even though you feel like maybe you've been listening to one song for 45 minutes, you don't really care.

Marya Gates

The Lovemakers -

TIMES OF ROMANCE

Elvis's pelvis had nothing on The Lovemakers. A pair of Oakland natives (word) whose relationship would have reached near-White Stripes-level ambiguity, were it not for a set of on-stage proclivities that fall just this side of the your local red light district, lead singers/stringed instrument strummers Scott Blonde and Lisa Light make no secret of their sexual obsession.

 Fortunately, music as well as sex was on their collective mind on their first full-length release, Times of Romance, a darned fun pop-rock record that a person can nonetheless listen to with a straight face

Soundwise, The Lovemakers bear a certain resemblance to recent new wave revival bands, particularly on the opening track, "Prepare for the Fight." Despite heavy synthesizer use, however, the band avoids the incredibly played-out spooky factor. Lisa Light fully embraces the Cyndi Lauper quality of her voice, particularly on "Gonna Find," and even the more lyrically dire

tracks have far too much pep for the average wilting emo kid. The band's lyrics, products of confused, dirty young adult minds as they may be, avoid both the kitschy, unintentionally funny quality of Louis XIV, and the pseudo-Dylan introspection of Bright Eyes.

Sure, the intelligence level dips a little bit on tracks such as-surprise, surprise-"Shake That Ass," but most, notably "We Should Be Taking Our Clothes Off."

Granted, nothing this band says or does is completely original, but the

creative recombination turns out to be enough. The Lovemakers have certainly contributed to the fine tradition of sex-obsessed rock and roll, but they've had the decency to offer up something

just new enough.

Ariel Toft

The New Pornographers -

TWIN CINEMA

If the members of the New Pornographers were propagandists, we'd all be doing exactly as they say. Seemingly innocuous, the band is actually a cleverly crafted machine which first lowers our defenses by being simple "pop music." This "pop music," it turns out, is actually a clever tapestry of emotional manipulation, each moment optimized in soaking our sponge-like brain tissue with pleasure. It's not for the faint of heart.

If the band's first two albums were any indication, their newest album, Twin Cinema, would be a dense collection of amazing music that all generally sounds the same as previous work. Instead, the band delivers their best and most diverse album yet, all while retaining their signature gleefulness.

To achieve the album's varied sound, while lesser bands would use tiring gimmicks, the New Pornographers use really terrific gimmicks. Often times, a single song will employ three or four tricks across multiple segments, each one building bigger than the last.

Just when a song seems pretty good, with high arcing vocals and a motivating melody, it destroys all expectations in one final assault and Becomes Great. "The Bleeding Heart Show" calls in a cavalry of "ooo"s and "hey la"s. In "Stacked Crooked," what seems like the main focus of the song turns out to be nothing more than a party bus on the way to a trumpeting fiesta down the road.

Once again, the album is dominated by A.C. Newman, the clear ringleader of the group. This one, however, feels a little less dominated, with Dan Bejar and Neko Case's songs standing out a bit more. Newman himself is also a bit more willing to try different things, given the confidence he's undoubtedly earned in crafting his own recent solo album.

This is one of those albums that earns back-to-back listening for days at a time, and a purchase of this, or any of the band's other albums, won't be regretted. If only real pornography were this much fun.

Jake Mix

Jack's Mannequin -

EVERYTHING IN TRANSIT

Everything in Transit is a concept album that tells the "not that interesting" but true "for the most part" story of a boy, a girl, two community college roommates and some entity known as "The Venice Beach Mafia."

This sounds intriguing enough, until one learns the effort was headed by more-pop-than-punk outfit Something Corporate frontman, Andrew McMahon. This is not the best way to become familiar with what turns out to be a surprisingly pleasant, melodic album.

Their sounds are similar, with McMahon's quiet voice and soft piano playing a major role in both, but Everything in Transit is obviously more conscious and deliberate than the average Something Corporate release.

Each song flows into the next in an almost sleepy drawl, tied together both musically and thematically

There is a certain amount of romantic angst throughout but the songs manage to keep from sounding whiny even when McMahon sings about unrequited sexual advances on "Miss Delaney" or breaking up on "La La Lie."

The sonic highlight is "The Mixed Tape" an ode to everyone's favorite (if not awkward) romantic gesture. Feel free to skip past Part One of "Made For Each Other" and straight to Part Two (subtitled "You Can Breathe"), which I imagine starts after the piano takes over and "you can breath" becomes the refrain that fades into a haunting ending.

At times, Everything in Transit feels contrived. It begs to tell its story, calling the tracks chapters and exhausting the tagline "This is a story." In this pursuit, the songwriting forgets itself, tangently trying to prove something by mentioning the protagonist "lacing up his Chucks" and borrowing a car to score an eighth on Venice Beach.

These moments, when lyricism takes a back seat to the details of the story, are unfortunate, but not enough to take away from what is an enjoyably light release.

Brandy Gamoning

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