| Beautiful Something review by Chip Edwards |
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| Take a quick look over your shoulder, then back up a few paces. Like a good 30 or 40 yards from the speaker cabinets. There. That’s just about the right distance to absorb the widescreen magnitude of these ‘Bama rockers, who know no shame in the thrill of epic, stadium anthems. In what’s being touted as a deathknell to low-fi (what?), the zippo-waving tunes from this Birmingham quartet (once known to our correspondents from the Panhandle as “Wish”) are an unashamed, fully acknowledged throwback to the hedonist bombast of Boston and Queen. Fronted by vocalist Jacob Bunton, as this year’s frontrunner in the Spin/Gear androgynous photo whore stakes, his is a stunning, high-cheeked focal point, who’s a cross between that guy in BuckCherry and Audrey Hepburn. His songs are filled with that familiar football-cheer/lovestruck sloganeering that sounds perfect in short, edited segments (great for between innings), while also easily connecting with the attention-deficit masses. Created with a mammoth, surround-sound production (that must have been milking producer Greg Arcila and engineer Kevin Shirley the big sonic “O” on an hourly basis), Mars Electric would love to assimilate the grand gestures of Simple Minds or Tears For Fears. In most ways, the FM would probably sound improved with tunes like the incendiary “Someday” and the propulsive “Far Away” pouring through the airwaves every quarter hour. But caught in an unusual time frame of aggressive, contentious music, Mars Electric’s grand anthems may find everyone standing back a little too far. I, for one, already have my zippo flaming. |