A Beautiful Lie - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
With over 15 acclaimed films to his credit, actor Jared Leto knew he had a challenge in creating a legitimate musical group, and the fact that a great many gifted thespians have pumped out some pretty awful albums hasn't slowed him at all. "Any time you have a precedent that's negative like that, you're gonna have an uphill battle," he agrees. "I've never shied away from that." Yet 30 Seconds To Mars' self-titled 2002 debut easily established the group as a fresh, new force, revealing a multi-faceted outfit that thrived on creative exploration and escape.

Three years later, their follow-up, A Beautiful Lie, catapulted the group to even greater success. Where the debut's line-up featured Jared on all guitar, bass, synth and vocals with brother Shannon on drums, a full collaboration developed with A Beautiful Lie, including guitarist Tomo Milicevic and bassist Matt Wachter. "The last thing we wanted to do was make the same record twice," Leto explains. Hundreds of tour dates and a 1996 MTV Nomination for "Best Video" later, 30 Seconds To Mars are proving their stability and still challenging their position. "We're interested in being as modern as we can," Leto concludes. "We're striving to do something different, to look forward rather than back, to be free from the shadows of our inspiration, and to continue, with our voice to make our mark."

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Album Description
UK deluxe two disc (CD + PAL/Region 2 DVD) digipak edition of Jared Leto and Co.'s sophomore album featuring two bonus audio tracks (a remix of 'The Kill' and an acoustic version of the album's title track) plus a bonus DVD that contains MTV2's 'All That Rocks' The Making of 'The Kill' video Behind the scenes of the 'From Yesterday' video plus three 30 Seconds To Mars music videos. Virgin.

Customer Reviews: Read 201 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A Change Of Pace, But Still A Great Sound. September 17, 2005
75 out of 82 found this review helpful

30 Seconds To Mars burst onto the scene back in 2002 with their self-titled album. Despite being fronted by Jared Leto (the actor who has appeared in two of my favorite films: "Fight Club" and "Requiem For A Dream"), the effort didn't receive that much attention, and listening to it, it's easy to see why. Don't get me wrong, their debut was great, but for a band establishing themselves, it was too broad, too spacey, and too high concept for people to really give it a fair chance. So it's no surprise that for their second album, "A Beautiful Lie," 30 Seconds To Mars have trimmed the fat off and streamlined their music quite a bit.

"A Beautiful Lie" is more of a collection of songs that a concept album. There is no discernable theme running through it, which means each song brings something different to the table, and has it's own identity. And not only that, each song is just as good as the one before it! Instead of sounding like an electronic-Tool like they did on their debut, 30 Seconds To Mars sound like a perfect amalgumation of A Perfect Circle, The Cure and Incubus. "The Kill" and the first single, "Attack" are the most recognizable and straight-forward of the set, centered around giant choruses and excellent songwriting. "The Fantasy" is my personal favorite, with it's funky intro and unpredictable changes in style. "Battle Of One" and "Hunter," which are tagged as "bonus tracks" (though they are hardly exclusive, and available on all copies of this album) are great in their own right, but feel tacked on. Perhaps that's why they are called "bonus tracks?"

Overall, "A Beautiful Lie" is a step-up for 30 Seconds To Mars. The debut was a good start, but this album just strengthens the groups catalog and shows that they have a lot more diversity than many of their contemporaries. And the best part is, their music has nothing to do with Jared Leto's acting career. You don't even have to know who the guy is in order to know that this is great music. If you enjoyed the first album, I highly recommend their second. When they first came out, I honestly doubted they would release anymore music, but I was wrong. So, here's looking forward to the third effort.

5 out of 5 stars

Space Metal with a dash of reality September 6, 2005
68 out of 92 found this review helpful

OK. First the venting.
I just hate having to listen to or be associated with inexperienced listeners when they think they know what they're talking about. I hear a lot of comparisons to The Used and even Nickelback, and Breaking Benjamin. The worst part is that these off base comparisons go one step further and accuse 30 seconds of TRYING to be like them.

If you have been listening to music for years and actually paying attention, you'd realize that 30 seconds can be said to sound influenced by MANY bands of the 80s and some 90s (the Cure, U2, depeche mode, deftones, orgy, incubus, bjork etc). But to skip that step and think that a 30 something like Leto would be trying to copy The Used is so uninsightful it should be stricken from memory.

ON to the album.....OK while still venting.
People's first reactions to new discs are often extreme regarding bands they like. Its so painfully obvious here. Its just not true that 30 seconds lost their sound. I admit that there is probably less of what stuck out as a futuristic sound. The album is probably farther down the scale from avante garde to mainstream. But there is so much in common with the last album.

I actually had a song in my head today and had to ask myself which album it was off of. (this is partly because it seemed too familiar to be coming from a week old disc, and partly because THE DISCS HAVE A LOT IN COMMON).

So take comfort in the fact that you have a very good disc from the same band (what have you done in the last 3 years lazies - myself included). And if they write enough material, you might get everything you're looking for over time. But in the meantime we have to remember that we got lucky that the first album sounded just right to us....and this one is closer to that particular sound than anything else out there. In fact many people will like this one more...they just didn't buy the album the first week because they weren't fans yet.

My friends and I actually managed to harass Leto after a show about 3 years ago, and asked him where they could go on future albums considering they had such a strong and unusual theme. He didn't have an extravagant answer, but just said not to take the Mars thing too literally, that its more of a symbol of reaching out.

So it only makes sense that the lyrical and sonic direction of future discs is going to go much more into the realm of the reality we know and only occasionally go head first into the "space metal" thing.

I think the Mars thing is an appealing escape, but who can make their entire music career (every song, every album cover, every lyric) relate to such an abstract idea. There has to be room for real world subject matter and a real world feel to come in also.

But yea....hopefully plenty more creative and unusual space metal to come.

1 out of 5 stars

Won't Play January 15, 2006
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

This CD is copy protected, and won't play in any of my CD players, nor my DVD player. The copy protection is supposed to allow you to play it on your PC as well, however that does not work on either my XP or my Win2000 PC. I'd like to give a review of the music IF I COULD EVER LISTEN TO IT. Do not buy this CD and support this horrid attempt at limiting my free use of the music I buy.

1 out of 5 stars

Copy Protected January 1, 2007
14 out of 27 found this review helpful

This is a "copy protected" CD which means it is not actually a "Compact Disc" (look closely and you won't find the CD logo anywhere on the packaging) and does not conform to the spec. It's very likely that you will not be able to get this onto your iPod or other player. If you're like me, that makes this disc (remember, it's not a CD) useless since I don't even own a normal CD player. Don't give these guys any of your hard-earned money. Find another way to hear this music or find an artist that actually cares about their fans.

1 out of 5 stars

Not nearly as good as their debut...but still AVOID THIS DISC because... February 18, 2006
13 out of 19 found this review helpful

...as others have mentioned, this CD is copy-protected, meaning once bought, you can't exercise your right as the owner of the CD to do as you please with its content (i.e., rip it to your hard drive, put it on your iPod).

I encourage all prospective buyers to boycott this CD on principle. Like all major industries (some with more egregious agendas than others), the music industry is rife with avarice and scum. Regardless of what the band or their label contends, this stuff is public domain once released, and they have NO RIGHT to limit the accessibility or manipulation of the material once purchased by the consumer.

Being legally blind, I missed the copy-protection denotation on the back of the CD ("the big print giveth, the small print taketh away"). I only discovered this when I attempted to rip it to my iPod.

Feeling bullied and victimized, I went back to Virgin Megastore and DEMANDED they give me an exchange. The glib cashier initially gave me a problem. But I was livid, and I refused to accept "no" as an answer. I debated adamantly with the store manager until she caved and granted me an exchange (I got "Hemispheres" by Rush, which not only contains much better music, it's also NOT copy-protected).

The moral of the story: even if you've already purchased this disc and are bummed you can't put it on your iPod, don't accept the fate of having wasted your money. Go back to the store from where you bought it and, as the consumer who works hard for his/her money, DEMAND they either give you a credit or an exchange. As the CONSUMER, you have rights, so FIGHT for them!

Lastly, if the retail rep gives you BS and attempts to place the blame on you instead of the record label for "assuming the risk of buying the copy-protected CD," don't budge. It's the RETAILER who assumes the burden/risk of carrying the label's junk product, thereby likely incurring the wrath of angry consumers who feel jipped (sp?). They (the retailers) should know better, and they undoubtedly do.

I'd truly like to review "A Beautiful Lie" for its music, which is neither great nor bad. It's decent. But it's the UGLY LIE on the part of the band's label which gives this a crappy rating. And if the band has any integrity, they'll address the copy-protection issue and do their best to make the fans happy.

'Nuff said.

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