Marvelous 3 are the kind of band that, to me at least, are the kind of people you didn’t want to hang out with at school. Maybe it’s because you formed your band first, you played your instrument better and wrote better songs, more creative songs. You could get a laugh if you tried, but that’s not what REAL music is about. Maybe you hate them because the whole school likes their brand of pop-rockey music over your uber-indie electro punk band. They are charismic, you are not. They sing about sex, and they have it. Maybe it’s just teenagers. Maybe they can relate to lead singer Butch Walker’s lyrics. Maybe when they get older, they’ll gravitate towards a more mature sound (i.e. your sound). Maybe you should have been a little nicer to those kids, made more friends. Then maybe they would like your band. What some people don’t realize is that Charisma is a hugely important aspect of popular rock music and back in the 1990’s no band had more of that good stuff than the boy’s in power pop delight, Marvelous 3. They were cocky, enjoyed sex and played their guitar’s fast and hard, they way things like that are supposed to be done.
As a lyricist Butch Walker is clever, even innocent, a coy predator hiding between rasp and rythym. At least, until you check them out on Lyrics.com. Butch is dirty, even filthy in some of his lyrics. As their 2000 Elektra records release’s title might show you, the use of innuendo’s to cover up for “other” ideas is in full force.
Quote:
Waking up inside a river of sweat and cum
Coming down from a dream, I can't remember anyone
Except I'm late for work and I know that sucks
Cuz I know I owe my girlfriend 25 bucks
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These are lyric’s from M3’s charming little ode to the hoes of America, Supernatural Blonde. Vocally Butch is pretty standard and generic, taking many elements from that of Nickelback, Motley Crue, The Offspring, and Queen and packing it into a slighty punk glass of pure pop rock. Easily Walker’s best performance comes on album centerpiece “Radio Tokyo” in the beginning it Walker’s voice is but a coo to a tinkling piano line, before beginning to scream out a hair-metal-without-the-hair tale of an adult coming of age story. Though a drum beat is nearly non-exsistent, the guitars set their own pace, with a ferocious solo thrown in for good measure.
Albums like this always seem to be sorta samey and forgettable to me. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you see it, this is album isn’t like that, While it does use a tired and true formula, Marvelous 3 do it with style and (a little) grace. Most songs can stand up on their own and are in essence pretty solid. Granted, the album has its fair share of horrible tracks, and honestly all the songs have something wrong with them, whether it be the clichéd lyrics, boring vocals, cookie cutter guitar or horribly polished production. Although there does seem to be an increase in mild intelligence by the second half of the album, and if one track sticks out as “the best” it would be pseudo-metal sleaze fest, “I’m Losing You”. Marvelous 3 manage to combine metal, Issac Brock-esque vocals and dancey bass and drums into something extremely listenable. “I’m Losing You” manages to differentiate itself from the rest of the pop-metal tunes and is vastly rewarded… well in respect at least.
Even when tracks, like “Better Off Alone”, flop and falter, you can’t help but bobbimg your head along and stomping your foot, cause as cheesy as it sounds that’s what Marvelous 3 is, just one of those bands. The fact that Marvelous 3 have only had one hit song (1998’s Freak of the Week) is a testament to the American public’s intense appreciation for the new and experimental, but I suppose in essence it is also a testament to human nature’s tendency to resent change. Pop rock re-hash bands like Marvelous 3 will always be around, but I doubt many of them will be as enjoyable as the guys in M3. The album ends with the pathetically titled, but surprisingly epic Cigarette Lighter Love Song, a rewrite of Mott the Hoople’s classic, David Bowie written “All the Young Dudes”. If Marvelous had just covered this song it might have made a stronger impression, but the fact that they do a rewrite is even more a showing of their tendency to make-over elements from the past into things of the present. I guess credit is given where it’s due and this record definitely deserves some credit. The album’s ending is positively epic and prompts me to give this CD a solid 3/5.
-Joe
