It took me a while to actually give this a proper listen, because I’ll readily admit it’s not really the genre of music I pay most attention to and I’ve always carried the preconception that 30STM are a bit of a poser band, cashing in on a movie stars A-list credentials. In fairness then, I’m partially wrong – the band are clearly a talented bunch and a well oiled machine though I still can’t past the publicity stunts like Kanye West’s guest spot (great start, but generally shit) and ‘alternate’ album covers made up of photos of fans. That all seems a little cynical.
The music itself is a clear attempt at “Epic” or “Anthemic” but instead it falls flat under layers of synth and techno beats (really now?) – fan vocals in all the wrong places also contribute to a record that ends up feeling pretentious, rather than epic.The Kanye West track is probably the worst offender on offer – it starts well, and builds nicely but ends in a syrupy auto-tuned mess. If you’re going to phone in Verse/Chorus structures there’s no point pretending they’re going to result in ‘epic’ songs. It all just ends up sitting awkwardly above radio rock, but beneath anything really exciting or interesting. It’s Angels And Airwaves rather than U2.
Ultimately this is not the record I was expecting and there are hints of interesting ideas, but by neither producing a straight up radio rock album nor anything particularly special, it’s a boring experience that feels like either a pretentious mess or something that’s fallen short of it’s intended
aims – I can’t decide which.
Kieran