Thirty Seconds to Mars are part of a Classic Albums series. You can stop laughing now.

  • Thirty Seconds to Mars are part of a Classic Albums series. You can stop laughing now.

EMI Music just launched its Classic Albums series, an iTunes-only campaign that makes 11 of the company’s albums available for $7.99 for the next two weeks.

The series includes:

– Thirty Seconds To Mars: A Beautiful Lie

– The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds

– Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head

– David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

– Gorillaz: Demon Days

– John Lennon: Imagine

– Norah Jones: Come Away With Me

– Paul McCartney & Wings: Band on the Run

– Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

– Radiohead: OK Computer

– The Verve: Urban Hymns

Anyone see anything wrong with this? No, not the Norah Jones album, which isn’t awful. And no, not the Verve either (“Bittersweet Symphony” is on there).

It’s Thirty Seconds to Mars. What are they doing here? Seriously. In what world/alternate reality would a Thirty Seconds to Mars album be considered “classic”? I wouldn’t even classify it as “good.”

Maybe I’m still smarting from yesterday’s news that my photographer didn’t get his promised photo pass to shoot Thirty Seconds to Mars’ recent House of Blues show because the band pulled it as payback for something I wrote about them.

Or maybe it’s because Thirty Seconds to Mars doesn’t deserve the “classic” status designated on other — truly classic — albums here, like the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Radiohead’s OK Computer.

I like what EMI is doing here. It’s a great deal for younger music fans (or fans upgrading their digital collections) to pick up some essential albums at bargain prices.

But please, next time please keep the list to true classics (or even Coldplay records, which are certainly listenable) and forget the market/genre—filling crap. Besides, Jared Leto’s mom (the only person in the universe, besides Thirty Seconds to Mars, who maybe considers their album a classic) probably already has A Beautiful Lie. —Michael Gallucci

This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2010.

13 replies on “30 Seconds to Mars Sneak Into Classic Albums Series”

  1. Michael, dear, you’ll have a stroke. Please, stop spitting, you’ll never reach 30 Seconds to Mars anyway. And since when the band is responsible for the actions of their shitty label?

    Have a nice day 🙂

  2. The very first definition in Webster’s for “classic” is: 1 a : serving as a standard of excellence : of recognized value

    It does not have to mean something old.

  3. great comment scinsocal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a beautiful lie does have a standard of excellence (as does THIS IS WAR)

    and i REALLY hope that first comment is made by the ‘real’ constance… ’cause that makes it even more great! haha 🙂

  4. that is a great comment scinsocal!!!!!!!!!!!!! … except nowhere did i say classic = old. so by the webster’s definition you cite (where would we be without a dictionary to back up our arguments?), “a : serving as a standard of excellence : of recognized value,” thirty seconds to mars still suck. “a beautiful lie” is not a standard of excellence. and it has no recognized value. it regurgitates shitty ’90s modern-rock that wasn’t so good the first time around.

  7. I first heard 30 Seconds to Mars this summer and was blow away by the quality of their music. I haven’t heard anything so original and innovative in years. It reminded me favorably of the rock albums of my youth as well as several older blues, jazz and swing musicians. I think of their music as contemporary classics of the quality of groups such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Metallica as well as artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Duke Ellington. While tastes vary from person to person, the band’s record sales do point to a significant number of people who join me in appreciating their music. Perhaps if you do not find their music pleasing you should not ask for favors?

  8. This article proves why this guy will work for clevescene.com and will achieve nothing else in his career while the band he gets so questionably worked up over will continue to rise in popularity and set standards for innovative and classic music.

    Odds are this person, whom is nothing more than a glorified blogger, more or less had a band, failed miserably, and resorted to bashing talent that surpassed his when they were toddlers.

    Than again, I could be wrong. It still won’t change the matter at hand that this person is getting attention for something, if printed, I wouldn’t even use as toilet paper.

  9. i would type a more useful and longer comment if it was for ‘1958’s epic comment down below, my god if thats not a way with words i dont know what is, @1958 dude you should have youre own flippin blog!!! *bows in appreciation*

  12. excuse me, did you notice that you happened to call him, “a douche”, “generally unpleasant”, “asshole rockstar”, and “dull”, in that order?? and you wonder why they didn’t give the pass to your photographer??? i think this comment of yours is generated by the fact that you’re ticked off because you felt like insulting them and then wanted them to just accept it and be nice to you as if they’re stupid. Shut up next time, and maybe people will be less “generally unpleasant” to you!

  13. As a 30 Seconds To Mars’ fan I obviously can’t just keep my mouth shut at this point. Just because this band isn’t known as well as other artists it doesn’t mean they produce music, which doesn’t qualify in a cathegory of classics. I think you should learn to show some respect to such epic musicians with their own originality. Seriously, how many talented musicians do we have nowadays?

    Enjoy your day and please, calm down, you’ll get a heart attack.

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