New Stuff

Two pretty big bands(fan base-wise) recently put new CD's. One I was pretty happy with, the other was pretty disappointing. I'm talking, of course, about Muse and 30 Seconds to Mars. If you like these bands and you aren't just into popular music, you know which one is a disappointment. If you happen to be one of those types, The Resistance is basically a big sell out, it's definitely not the Muse I fell in love with. It sounds way to pop-y and like it was meant for everyone to listen to, and I feel they lost some of their identity as a band. On the other hand, This Is War, by 30 Seconds to Mars, was a good album. Sure it was meant for a bit wider audience, but they advanced and expanded without losing their sound.
When I heard the first single for The Resistance, I was not very impressed. The Uprising sounded like a huge Marilyn Manson knock off. It has huge drums and bass and not as much guitar as the Muse I know experimented with. The keyboard was not traditional muse piano, it was some warbly synth thing. And there was clapping involved! How much cornier can you get.I thought, well maybe they had this depth-less, catchy, song to bring people into the album, this was not the case. The album is littered by all this new heavy drums shit and was totally unlike them, I was a bit shocked. I kept trying to tell myself this is just moving forward, but it never sat well with me, I'm sorry.
Now 30 Second's, they did a very good job. Their single (Kings and Queens), at least I think it was a single, anyways it was the most popular song off the album and had a video and all that jazz, was a good song and the video was pretty amazing. It sounded just a bit like U2, nahhh, it actually sounded very much like a U2 song but it really worked for them, and they put their own influence on it. I could tell it was a 30 Seconds to Mars song before he started singing. This Is War and Night of the Hunter went more back to their roots but with more of a major (as in the key) and brighter sound. All in all it was a pretty good album, nothing disappointing and some good songs. One thing I found odd was the children's choir in the backround of each song.