As some people might know, the Jonas Brothers reunited this past week. However, what people really need to pay attention to is the new Marianas Trench album that dropped on Friday. It’s called “Phantoms,” and the premise of it is basically that it’s about a house that is possessed by “the spirit of lingering loss and inhabited by someone who’s being driven to madness by the ghost of former love.” It’s no surprise that the album has an interesting backstory or a natural progression to the songs; Marianas Trench is known for creating albums based on stories.
That brings into question, though, how this new album fares next to some of the other MT albums.
For example, MT’s first album, “Fix Me,” didn’t necessarily have a strong backstory, but it’s obvious from the more-or-less scandalous songs that this album was about making a statement. They wanted their voices heard and found a way to do that. As far as the vocals went, this album did not have nearly as many strong, powerful shouts and long… screams for lack of a better term, and the harmonies that are part of the Marianas Trench signature weren’t there yet. So, “Phantoms” is definitely better than “Fix Me”.
Next, “Masterpiece Theater.” Now, this album was kind of cut off into Acts like an actual theater performance, which was really cool. The vocals were on point, and honestly, this album has some of the greatest MT hits of all time. Their song “Cross my Heart” from this album was the first song of theirs I ever heard, and it’s amazing. For just the nostalgia factor alone, I have to say that “Phantoms” isn’t as good as “Masterpiece Theater”. I mean, come on, it’s a masterpiece.
Then, we have “Ever After,” an album based on the story of a knight or some guy who was in love with a princess, but the princess’ dad didn’t like him, so there’s some clear angst in this album. However, I will say that the music videos and songs themselves don’t really translate that storyline all too well. The music videos especially make it seem like the girl is just leading the guy on, so I’m not entirely sure. The album itself was made to listened to in order, all at once; and while I do think it’s incredibly amazing and everyone should listen to it just like that all the time, I will also say that it loses points for that. Some of the songs just don’t feel/sound quite right when they’re played out of order or without the context of the previous song. Since “Phantoms” can be played in any order (more-or-less), I think I’d say that “Phantoms” wins this fight.
Most recently, MT came out with “Astoria,” which is a heartbreaking album. There wasn’t so much a storyline for this album, but more of a focus on a type of music style (The 80s if you can’t tell from the album cover). However, the lead singer started working on this album after him and his fiance broke off their engagement, and that’s where the heartbreak comes in. A lot of the songs have to do with losing love, more specifically no longer finding love where it had been for years. This album is also more-or-less supposed to be played in order, but out of context the songs are still just spectacular. This is undoubtedly their best album, so “Phantoms” can’t rank higher than this.
Overall, “Phantoms” is in the middle when it comes to Marianas Trench’s albums. It is worth a listen to, and a few of the songs (such as “The Killing Kind” and “Echoes of You”) are very, very good. But don’t take my word for it, their whole discography is on Spotify and ready for your ears… that’s the weirdest thing I’ve typed all week.