30 Seconds To Mars

[Deepvoid]

I went back 20 pages and couldn't find a topic so here it is (unless I missed it).

New album coming out int May.
Here's the first single:

http://www.directlyrics.com/new-song-30-seconds-to-mars-up-the-in-the-air-news.html

I miss the time of Buddha for Mary.
New song is not terrible but it's nothing to get overly excited.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

I miss the time of Buddha for Mary.


Believe me... we all do.

After the s/t, for me their music just got less and less interesting. The last two albums have been much more miss than hit, but the songs that hit I really really like and vice versa. The new song is just..... eh. Honestly it doesn't even sound like 30STM to me.

[gerbil]

This is actually the first thing I've heard from them since the S/T that I'm actually enjoying.


After the s/t, for me their music just got less and less interesting. The last two albums have been much more miss than hit, but the songs that hit I really really like and vice versa. The new song is just..... eh. Honestly it doesn't even sound like 30STM to me.

Care to share the tracks you like?

[AgentofChaos]

Was a huge fan of this band in the early days. Jared was doing small select acting roles and touring small venues like a mad man. Saw them about 5 times in this era, each one I was blown away. That first record is an absolute gem. They play basically nothing from it now, does it even exist to them? I even quite enjoyed A Beautiful Lie, even though it was a bit more "radio friendly". From Yesterday is still one of my favorite songs of theirs. They pretty much lost me by This is War though. The new songs were mostly crap (the worst offender being Closer to the Edge - why does Jared love this turd so much?), and they completely killed their live set selection to the point I won't even bother going now, since I know I will just be frustrated. I had no expectations for this single, and upon listening it didn't really do anything to change the fact they still appear to be one of those lost bands, who had all this talent but like hearing their songs on the radio and want all the screaming girls at their shows (see: Muse), instead of being worried about making a real cool inventive record.

I'm not saying This is War is complete shit; there are a few good songs on it. I liked Night of the Hunter. Stranger in a Strange Land. So hopefully this new record will have a few more. I would probably be much more lenient of their new "direction" if the live sets embraced, if only for a small portion, their guitar heavy roots with songs like Fallen, Oblivion, Buddha, Battle of One, but seems those days are done like dinner.

Did anyone catch the doc Artifact that Jared did? It was the story of how they had to struggle to make This is War. I never watched it.

[PhoenixML]

My feelings toward 30STM is like Linkin Park. Their sound has changed soo much to the point I'm having a hard time appreciating the new stuffs.

In retrospective, A Beautiful Lie is not as bad as I made it out to be back then, but I never listen to it. All the songs are quite ok, but A Beautiful Lie and Battle of One are incredible!

I didn't mind This Is Was. After ABL, I wasn't expecting much and I was glad to be able to enjoy at least 4-5 songs (Night of the Hunter, Hurricane (without Kanye West) and Stranger in a strange Land mostly). It was also the first time I went to see them live. What a terrible show! The worst I've ever seen.

This new song is "good". I'm looking foward this new album.

[october_midnight]

A Beautiful Lie was decent at best, other than a few standout tracks (I still really dig From Yesterday) but holy crap the first album was great. I still consider it as one of the pinnacles of 'Yes, an actor can make a killer album' if that makes sense. It was the time of every article written about the band of course mentioning his acting and how he had to go against the grain and say 'yes I actually can make this sound good', but it really was. Saw them live here twice for that album cycle and got to hang out with them for about 20 min. after one of their shows here and Jared was really nice.

Then I saw them downtown here for the ABL tour and it was around the time Jared was shooting that Chapter 27 movie and they focused too much on that album (obviously) so I didn't care for it as much. In terms of favorite song of theirs, End of The Beginning for me is still #1. When the drums kick in at like :20 or so, the fuzzy guitars...it still sounds so rad to me.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

This is actually the first thing I've heard from them since the S/T that I'm actually enjoying.



Care to share the tracks you like?

Sure thangg:

All of the S/T but my favorite tracks have to be Capricorn (A Brand New Name), Fallen, and Welcome To The Universe.

A Beautiful Lie:

A Beautiful Lie
Attack
The Story
Battle Of One (Great)

This Is War:

Escape
Night Of The Hunter (and the remix)
This Is War
100 Suns
Hurricane
Stranger In A Strange Land (Love)
L490

So I guess I can say I like the majority of This Is War.. but the songs I didn't list I absolutely hate.

[spiralout]

I really enjoyed most of their first album, didn't listen to A Beautiful Lie too much and enjoyed about half of This is War. Night of the Hunter is probably one of my favorite songs from them.

That being said I saw them live in 2011 and it was the worst show I have ever seen. Jared was way to busy trying to get the fans to sing / dance around stage / talk during songs to make it enjoyable. They came on over an hour late and only played like 12 songs, 4 of which were covers/acoustic songs. I told myself that I was done with this band after the show......the new song pretty much solidifies that.

[Maul]

Their first album was full of good stuff and their second one too.It's a shame they're going down the same path as Muse as somebody below me said.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

THE CHANTING. UUUGGGHHH. I really hope it's not gonna be all over the new album.

The song itself is meh. What really sticks out to me is that Jared's age is starting to show a little bit in his voice. Not that he's especially old (Jesus, 41?), but after using his vocal cords the way he does for the last 10 years, it's inevitable. He still has the ability, but his cords have definitely had some wear and tear.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

There is a preview of the new album with some acoustic tracks in the mix and the first song sounds amazing. Check it out on pirate.

[GoodSoldier333]

To add to what people have already been saying, I think they're a pretty accurate example of how changing things up too much can alienate their fans.
The difference between what's going on with Linkin Park and 30STM is that Linkin Park, from what I've been seeing, still has that initial core fanbase that doesn't like the new stuff but still cares to listen each time something comes out. With 30STM, apart from the Leto fangirls, it seems the mass of the fanbase for new material is coming from charts/billboards.

[PhoenixML]

I've only listen to this new album once. Sometime it's good to listen to it again, in order to get used it, to discover things you haven't carefully heard the first time, to understand the mood/energy. Here, I don't know why I should. I don't know why I keep trying to listen to a new 30STM album...

[AgentofChaos]

So just listened to Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams.

It was darker than I expected from the title/single. Don't get to excited; there are still a lot of sing-songy tracks where Jared is trying to inspire young girls to stay strong and believe in themselves, etc. So it wasn't a perfect return to form by any means, but to say something positive here instead of drifting further down the rabbit hole and making an even shittier record, they at least tried at times to wander back at least a little closer to the heart of what they used to be about. They didn't get that close by the end (ironically I might actually prefer This is War), but points nonetheless for the attempt. The million Jared choir still makes its many appearances. As do the poppy sensibilities. Which at times I was fine with, other times not so much. The bad does very much outweigh the good unfortunately. I do think if you took the best songs from this record, and mixed them with the best of This is War, you might have something worthwhile. See below.

The album starts off showing some potential with the intriguing A Birth/Conquistador opener. It loses me quickly with Up in the Air and City of Angels. It starts to pull me back in a bit with The Race, a cool attempt but sadly still a very flawed song. End of All Days is this promising ballad with some awesome lyrical moments side by side with some cringe worthy ones (all we need is faith, faith is all we need, etc). By the Pires of Varanasi, it becomes clear what this album actually is; it's This is War's pop songs remixed with the Tron Legacy soundtrack. Bright Lights is exactly what the titles suggests, and not in the good way. It's this albums Closer to the Edge. *Shudder*. Do or Die or Covergence do little to inspire me that the record will finish with any real momentum. Northern Lights however is actually a pretty good song though, possibly my favorite, so it was a nice surprise that the album didn't just peter out quietly, it has some nuggets waiting for you. Depuis le Debut was a great closer on top of that. I so wish this album would have been more like what it was like in its beginning and its conclusion. What you ultimately have here is a record book-ended with a few interesting tracks, but with the sandwich meat inside being mostly spoiled crap.

If you haven't liked anything the band has done since self titled, you probably want to stay away. If you liked ABL, and thought there were some redeeming qualities to TIW, then you might find something here for you. Just be prepared to sit through some duds on the way. But you're probably already used to that.

Here is my custom tracklist for a hybrid version of both albums titled 'Dreams of Love and War'. Was torn about whether to include King of Queens, but ended up doing so. I also ended up editing out those little snippets at the start/ends of track (faith, love, etc as they just felt out of place on this mix) and made a few other changes for transitional purposes. Maybe I'll throw it up on the bay at some point soon.

1. Escape
2. Pires of Varanasi
3. Depuis le Debut
4. This is War
5. End of All Days
6. Stranger in the Strange Land
7. L490
8. Birth
9. Night of the Hunter
10. Conquistador
11. Hurricane
12. Northern Lights
13. King of Queens
14. 100 Suns

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

This Is War was ten times better than this junk and that isn't saying much. The filler tracks are better than the songs with actual lyrics and they only last about 2 minutes. End Of All Days is great, Pires, Convergence, Depuis, Birth, all work for me but they seem like they don't even go or belong on the album.

..and OMG, the chanting.. I cannot take it anymore. I agree with you Agent, the list you made is what I would go for.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

There are a lot of elements that I like, but as a whole? I think it's garbage...It sounds like they worked on a solid few songs, then piced together scraps of what could have been potentially awesome tracks. The hell is with that last song? It would've been better to knock off that first acoustic segment, then expand the other two into full songs. There was some potential there, but I think it got lost in the desperate reach for "artistic vision" or something.

On a side note, I think "Northern Lights" is pretty good, but I think I prefer the demo acoustic version that leaked out about a week or so go.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

There are a lot of elements that I like, but as a whole? I think it's garbage...It sounds like they worked on a solid few songs, then piced together scraps of what could have been potentially awesome tracks. The hell is with that last song? It would've been better to knock off that first acoustic segment, then expand the other two into full songs. There was some potential there, but I think it got lost in the desperate reach for "artistic vision" or something.

On a side note, I think "Northern Lights" is pretty good, but I think I prefer the demo acoustic version that leaked out about a week or so go.

Yea, a lot of the instrumentals to me sounded like they were just unfinished or just did not belong in some areas. There are a few acoustic demos I believe?? But I as well prefer that session over the entire album. Also, no flow or relative nature about anything on the album as far as track order, or the tracks in general. Kind of like "What happened?"

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

Caught a glimpse of the comments under their Facebook post, "What's your favorite song on the new record?" Not surprised to see "Omg city of angles omg" every other comment.

Why can't they just hammer down and do an album that doesn't pander? Gimme that Self-Titled goodness.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

Caught a glimpse of the comments under their Facebook post, "What's your favorite song on the new record?" Not surprised to see "Omg city of angles omg" every other comment.

Why can't they just hammer down and do an album that doesn't pander? Gimme that Self-Titled goodness.

Because I am sure it is the "Omg city of angels" fans that they are now thriving from. S/T #2 with some This Is War ideas in the mix would be very grand.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

It's a real shame, too, because I feel like Jared's new obsession with visual arts would make for an incredible addition to a S/T part 2. Not that everything he's done on his own is gold, but the guy clearly has a love for it.

In other news, I recently discovered Jared Leto was in The Thin Red Line. How did I miss that? The guy always seems to pop up when you least expect him. Not that he stole the show or anything, but man, he was all over for a while there.

[Deepvoid]

New album isn't doing anything for me. Listened to it on my way to work and it fell flat on all levels.
Obviously City of Angels has "single" written all over it.

[ryanmcfly]

I like End of All Days, Conquistador, and Up in the Air. The rest is just mediocre to me.