Despite the criticism of being an actor trying to start a musical career (which I will say, is in general a complete joke), this band's debut release was quite the album. While the general concept and majority of the lyrical content are hokey at best, the music is well thought out, the production is elegant, the instrumentation is thorough and fairly mature, and the hooks are catchy. Kudos, Jared Leto; maybe there's a reason you are my man-crush.
The band's sound itself is not generally my favorite- the industrial rock tinged with nu-metal- because generally these kinds of bands sound like they think they are from the future (this band is no exception). However, if you can get past that, we have some really good songs here. The disc has a fairly intense pace from the get-go and doesn't actually let up for most of the album. The instrumentation, guitar-wise, isn't anything special at all, minus maybe some slightly cliche effects loaded on with no mercy, but the percussion is something I always found to be superb. There are alot of electric drums use, but the drummer himself does show some natural talent. Production wise, it's everything you could expect from an album fronted by an A movie actor- perfect. Everything is mixed well and can be heard clearly.
Real quick, I'm going to touch on why this cd could never get higher than a 7 in my book. The lyrics are ridiculous. I think Leto wanted to portrat himself as some sort of futuristic astronaut hoping to lead a space revolution... or ? I really have no idea, but he ends up sounding like an idiot, or maybe someone who wanted to be an astronaut but did too much acid in high school and instead ended up pumping gas and continues to be obsessed with the "back when's" and "what if's" of total failure.
All in all, it's a decent album. Over the years my taste in music has changed quite a bit, but this album has always stayed somewhere on my shelf as something I can still enjoy occasionally, and that fact alone is why I chose to review it.
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