Fair enough, and I guess it is a little weird outside of the genre. A guest rap verse in a pop song can really veer into different places, for better or worse
Pretty weak album. A lot of songs just don't stand out to me. I really like One Track Mind (mainly cause of the the rap bridge and following guitar solo), Love is Madness and Rider. Those are the best tracks for me. Remedy and Great Wide Open are good to, but the other songs are just average 30STM songs to me.
I've never been a 30STM fan, I've liked a couple of their older songs here and there but they are not a band I've looked out for or cared for although I do like Jared Leto. My sister was a fan of their last album as she was always listening to it and asking me if I was aware of them. However, after listening to One Track Mind, I enjoyed what I listened to. I liked the vocals, the synths, the production, the rap section and the cool guitar solo at the end of the track. I decided to listen to Walk On Water and thought that was a pretty good track also, even if it did get repetitive. I played One Track Mind to my girlfriend and she really liked it. She asked "have you bought this?" and I said no, I haven't. She then said "good, I'll get this for your birthday" as it's my 30th next Sunday. I really have the best girlfriend ever! Looking forward to hearing it.
So I listened to the album out of curiosity on Spotify and it's probably the worst album since Love Lust Faith and Dreams for me. I went in hoping that Walk On Water wasn't the only good song and was pretty disappointed. It might just be my bias as a huge fan of the first three albums but I just don't feel the energy off this one and none of the tracks make me particularly excited like earlier material like Closer To The Edge, Oblivion or The Fantasy do.
As someone who loved his verse and also loves rap music I did find the name drop to be weird and unnecessary. Only part about the song I would change. When a lot of people say America they are just refereeing to the USA. Usually you will hear people specify "North America" when talking about the whole continent.
Those album artwork covers are absolute garbage tbh. Some of the worst and cringiest album promotion I've ever seen.
Yeah the clean guitar riff is basically the same. also the chord progression on the chorus is really similar to Heavy.
I'm on the fence. On one hand, they allowed people to make their own cover via a cover generator which was a smart move in the sense people could 'personalize' their digital copy, but yeah...the cover is ugly regardless of what text is on it.
I'd have to listen to the album as a whole a few more times to come to a definitive overall score but from what I've heard, I like it. One Track Mind and Love Is Madness are the standout tracks for me with the latter being so damn addictive to listen to, especially the chorus. Funnily enough, my CD copy didn't have A$AP Rocky's verse so when I went to search this there were suggestions this may have been a UK exclusive thing however, some fans in the US have stated they've purchased the CD from the 30STM website as well as their local Walmart and their version didn't have his verse either. The digital versions seem fine though so must be a random thing. Other tracks I liked were Dangerous Night, Rescue Me, Hail To The Victor and Walk On Water. I'd have to listen to the other tracks again to see if they are on my 'great songs' list but so far, I like it! A really catchy album to listen to.