Tag: Thirty Seconds to Mars

Saturday Flashback: Thirty Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens

That’s how you do good anthemic stadium-pop-rock.

Tim: We demonstrated on Wednesday that sometimes you get choruses that are so good any other fault can be entirely forgiven. Here’s another.

Tom: Bird noises and sound effects. That’s a good start. Mind you, once that intro actually kicks in…

Tim: Once that happens, then yes, the verses are a bit dull. Yes, it’s almost six minutes long with a sillily long middle way-more-than-eight, which the civilised world has no need for. Yes, the lyrics are overinflated self-important guff. But then there’s that chorus line, so powerful, so outstanding, so memorable that you just don’t care about all that.

Tom: Yep. That’s how you do good anthemic stadium-pop-rock. Add some strings and big percussion, and start wailing on your guitars. Not an insult, that — it’s damn good.

Tim: It’s just a great, great track.

Thirty Seconds to Mars – Do Or Die

“Is this chorus big and bold enough?”

Tim: I have a thing with rock bands. Basically, I can cope with their music being a bit of a racket, as long the chorus is epic enough, or at least has a decent, generally quite drawn-out, hook to it.

Tom: Crikey. There’s a reason we don’t normally review rock music, folks, and that’s it.

Tim: Kings and Queens, for example – utterly fantastic track. And now there’s this (a fan-made lyric video, by the way – the official seven minute one is full of all sorts of guff).

Tom: I want to go to Iceland now. Disappointingly, though, it won’t have a soundtrack like that.

Tim: So, my question is this: is this chorus big and bold enough that it outweighs the fair racket that is the rest of the song?

Tom: I disagree with your basic premise there. That’s not a racket – the song’s great! And that chorus, in particular. But does that big, bold chorus enough for you?

Tim: I think it just about is, though inevitably if I wake up to it on the radio I’ll think ‘oh, God, can’t we have something a bit calmer’. It’s quite a short chorus, and I wouldn’t mind a bit more, and I can’t quite see it ever rising to Kings and Queens levels, but I think it’s alright. Just about.

Tom: Speak for yourself. I think it’s marvellous.