Thirty Seconds to Mars attempts to sum up America in one album

After a five year period of silence, Alternative rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars recently released their fifth studio album, America.

I had never listened to the band prior to the album and I was shocked to see it was led by Jared Leto, who I recognized from “Suicide Squad” when he played The Joker. He also starred in movies such as “Dallas Buyers Club“, and Blade Runner 2049.

There are ten different album covers, each one representing different aspects of America to Leto.

The album opens with the song “Walk On Water”. It’s a motivational song accompanied by a great music video. The visual attempts to show a whole day in america, using over 10,000 people to film the country on July 4. The song is good, but it could have been better with the help of Travis Scott. He debuted the song with them at the 2017 VMA’s, mashing it up with his song “Butterfly Effect”. I know that could not have been included on the album, but it still had potential for a collaboration with Scott.

Zedd hopped on the production of  “Dangerous Night”, and it is so obvious. His little snare rolls and vocal effects are a staple included in his recent hits such as “Stay” and “The Middle”. There is even a little clock ticking sound that can be heard in the pre-chorus, which I feel has become Zedd’s signature touch.

When I first listened to the song “Rescue Me”, I made an interesting discovery. The intro sounds exactly like “On My Mind” by Ellie Goulding. If they did not sample it, I am sure it was directly inspired by Goulding’s 2015 hit.

“Hail to the Victor” is a great song, and if you listen to it while you are in the car, you might want to drive 100 miles an hour. This song was produced by Yellow Claw, a popular EDM duo.

“One Track Mind“, is a good song, but the A$AP Rocky feature makes it great. Although it is short, it really adds to the song.

Following “One Track Mind” comes “Monolith”. It sounds like a Hans Zimmer song, or something that would be heard on the soundtrack of a large summer blockbuster action movie. I thought the song was completely pointless, until I heard it transition into “Love is Madness“.

“Love is Madness” is definitely my favorite song from the project. The production is fantastic, and it can really be appreciated with good headphones. Halsey’s presence on the track is great and I think she was a great artist to feature on the album.

The band’s sound has severely evolved from their previous albums, which I feel is appropriate, but others might say it is a change for the worse. I think if they did not approach this project with a modern sound, they would have fallen into irrelevance.

When a band does not release music for five years, they need to come back with a bang. I felt they accomplished that with this album. I am sure they will gain many new fans who were not even aware of their previous existence, and lose many due to their new sound.

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For more music reviews, see Man of the Woods and Perception.

Logan Lewis can be reached via Twitter @logan6300