la_belle_laide | (Reply)

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Wow, that's a pretty in-depth review. I picked up This Is War a couple of weeks ago, as well as their first album, and have been listening to them quite a bit (both albums are currently on my MP3 player). It was a combination of your mad fangirling and hearing Echelon in the credits for The Core that got me into 30STM, and it's definitely my type of music. That said, there's not much which isn't my type of music - I remember well a housemate at uni poking his head round the door and asking "just what sort of music do you like" (the answer: anything that's not tatty pop). Anyway, on to the songs:

Night of the Hunter: after reading this I now always think "Jumpin' Jack Flash" when listening to it. What's worse is I now think of Elite Beat Agents as well when listening to it (JJF is the final song in that). I blame you for that one :) And yeah, it is "One, Two, Three, Five" in the middle. Possibly they choose that because it sounds better than "Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre".

Kings and Queens: this one surprised me when I heard it, as it's different to the radio version. The radio edit skips the hawk/falcon cry and starts straight with the drums at about 0:35.

Vox Populi: this is my favourite. The lyrics remind me a bit of VNV Nation's Advance and Follow album - that has a similar war theme to it, though much darker.

Stranger in a Strange Land: this time it's the heavy synth intro that makes me think VNV Nation. Of course, then it turns into something completely different - VNV Nation is a sort of dance/synth sound, not rock.

L490 (interestingly, this track on the album is titled just "L490"): This one is... strange, to say the least, and feels like three songs rather than one. You've got the droning at the start, which sounds like a Tibetan prayer bowl (that's a brass bowl that resonates when you gently rub it with a felt stick). Then there's a bit of light guitar, and then the chanting. The very creepy chanting, which is rather unsettling to listen to. Weird.