Thirty Seconds to Mars is an alternative rock band fronted by Jared Leto, not only a talented singer and multi-instrumentalist but also an Academy Award-winning actor. This band has been around since 1998 (the year of my birth), and this is their 5th full-length album and their first since 2013. Now, I’ve appreciated the group from afar thanks to tracks like “The Kill” and “Kings and Queens,” but I’ll be honest, I had NO expectations for this album. EVERYWHERE I LOOKED, someone was saying something bad about it, and it just seemed like the general consensus was “this album sucks.” But, ya know, I’m a glutton for punishment, so I’ll occasionally subject myself to terrible albums. Let’s see if this is one of them!
Walk On Water: Off the bat, I’m not excited because Eminem started his last album off with a song called “Walk on Water,” and that album turned out to be less-than-stellar, so my stomach is kinda turning on this one. And off the top, it’s a song about joining together and being together as one. Obviously, this album is gonna be politically-minded, but I’m still nervous because the topic of "coming together as one" can be a little too easy, somewhat cheap, and really weak if done wrong. Sure, I’ve enjoyed a song like “Bridges” by Fifth Harmony despite it talking about “bridges, not walls,” but this kind of thing can come off as very preachy very easily if the song accompanying it sucks. So, does it? Well, eh. I do like Jared Leto’s vocals on this track, and the electronic production has some nice sonic elements, but I can’t help but feel like it sounds like a lot of other songs I’ve heard plenty of times before. Not terrible, but nothing all that special.
Dangerous Night: A more synth-driven song about a couple that just doesn’t seem right for each other, this one oddly works for me. I have a feeling some will be driven away by the production of the track, as well as its general familiarity, but it honestly kinda works for me. There are some cool sonic elements, and I really liked Jared Leto’s vocals here. Sure, it’s probably been done a billion times before by a billion different artists, and Thirty Seconds to Mars is probably the last band that should be making these kinds of songs, but it’s still got a nice sound to it, admittedly.
Rescue Me: A song that talks about wanting to be rescued from your own inner demons, this is a cut that unfortunately doesn’t have enough charm to make up for the abundance of familiarity it possesses. Sure, Jared Leto’s vocals are solid as always, but the synth-driven production just feels like it’s too generic and overdone, without having the excitement to make up for that, and the breakdown after the hook only helps this to feel like any other EDM song in this universe. Yeah, not digging this track. Next.
One Track Mind (ft. A$AP Rocky): For some reason, Thirty Seconds to Mars enlisted the help of A$AP Rocky on this song. Let your mind work with that for a second. And, I just want to say, when this track opened, I for some reason thought I was listening to U2’s “Summer of Love” from their last album “Songs of Experience,” and I started to wonder if Jared Leto just decided not to sing for this one, and instead just took that song and put it in here. Luckily, he didn’t, so at least the group isn’t that lazy, but man, this is generic, EDM dumpster fire at its absolute worst. Awful hook, weak breakdown, and an electronic instrumental so predictably boring it’s got no entertainment value whatsoever. Sure, A$AP Rocky’s verse isn’t all bad, but he can’t save this train wreck of a song.
Monolith: An entirely instrumental song (the only instrumental-only song on here), this too feels like quite a few things I’ve heard plenty of times before. No, it’s not a bad track, it’s got a good sound to it, and it’s suitably epic in a very movie trailer type of way, but I just don’t see myself coming back to it in the future.
Love is Madness (ft. Halsey): Once again, on the list of strange features, Thirty Seconds to Mars brings in Halsey for…whatever reason, to help them sing about a dysfunctional relationship. You know, for an album called “AMERICA,” I was honestly expecting more political themes here, not songs about relationships. And while I like some of the filters on Jared Leto’s vocals in his verses, the song just feels like yet another dull and lifeless EDM song with a Halsey feature I forgot about as soon as the song ended. Hell, it’s honestly like a skeleton of an EDM song, it’s not even a full-blown EDM song. Just the skeleton. Oh, and it felt like the song ended twice before it actually did, so, maybe a clearer ending would’ve been nice. Yeah, can we move on to the next song, please?
Great Wide Open: Once again, a song about love. You know, because this album wasn’t totally advertised under the ideology that it was going to be “political” whatsoever! Admittedly, though, this one sounds pretty nice overall, and I like Jared Leto’s vocals here. I just can’t help but feel like it's a song that's been done a few times before. I can appreciate it for not really feeling like an overly-contrived EDM track like the others (in fact, it feels a little toned-down compared to the earlier ones), but it still didn’t really sell me. A decent track, but nothing special.
Hail To The Victor: A song about victory…in some type of war, but while you might think it's talking about an actual battle, for the sake of this review, we’re gonna pretend that Jared is talking about chess in this song, because, why the hell not? Once again, this feels like generic, wallpaper EDM music with a similarly obnoxiously overdone and hideous EDM-breakdown in the hook. It’s songs like this that make me wonder why rock bands feel the urgency to step so far into EDM at this point (and it also makes me happy that Judas Priest kept things super metal on “Firepower"). It’s just bland and weak, and it needs to stop.
Dawn Will Rise: Oh, so you think that by having a French introduction on this song that you’re gonna win me over? Well, guess what? Non, tais-toi! That’s French for “no, shut up” if you didn’t get it. But anyway, I almost forgot a song was playing when this one was on. It’s so dull and flat and emotionless, and at first, I liked the somewhat stripped-back feel of it, but then you added in the electronics again, and bam, you lost me. And then you add in another weak breakdown, and I’m not coming back. Bye.
Remedy: Jared’s brother Shannon Leto sings the lead vocals, talking to Jared and trying to make sense of his emotions. Some are of love, others are not. Once again, it takes a stripped-back approach, consisting only of an acoustic guitar track and Shannon’s vocals. It’s a simple song, but I like Shannon’s vocals and the lyrical subject matter of the song. It’s pretty emotional, and there’s even a chance I’ll come back to it in the future.
Live Like A Dream: A track that starts off really nicely and stripped back (it’s just that acoustic guitar), but eventually turns into another one of those very weak, run-of-the-mill EDM songs with a chant from the crowd thrown in there for good measure. Here, Jared talks about…you know what, I don’t even care anymore, it’s not political, despite what you might be lead to believe, and it’s not good, which you probably will be led to believe.
Rider: The final track on this painful mess has a really cool, somewhat sinister intro to it, with some nice choir singing and cool guitar plucking, but once again, it moves away from that feel, though instead of moving towards EDM, it moves just towards a slightly heavier sound that just doesn’t create any excitement. There’s hardly a hook to this thing, and while there are no obnoxious breakdowns, it just feels it’s been done before. It tries a bit, but ultimately, it’s a pretty nothing special end to a really terrible album.
So, does this album suck? Oh yeah, big time. I’m not gonna waste much more of your time with this thing, but it’s clear Thirty Seconds to Mars is sticking firmly into cheap, contrived EDM beats that just feel dime a dozen. And while Jared Leto’s vocal performances are typically strong (and that’s no different here), I can’t help but wonder why he and the group called this thing “AMERICA” and advertised its political contents when this is a pretty not-so-political album overall. Easy answer: marketing ploy. Not easy answer: Probably still marketing ploy. Either way, this album really felt lackluster, and I don’t want to bore you with anything more about it, so I’m calling it here. Don’t listen to this. Please please please, just don’t. Don’t make the mistakes I made.
As Anthony Fantano said, “……….This album sucks.”
Favorite tracks: Dangerous Night, Remedy
Least favorite tracks: Rescue Me, One Track Mind, Love is Madness, Hail To The Victor, Dawn Will Rise, Live Like A Dream
Rating: Awful
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