Review Summary: The new 30 Seconds To Mars album, 'Love Lust Faith + Dreams' has some great ideas in it that unfortunately get muddled by old sounds and new problems.
I'm not going to lie, I am a fan of 30 Seconds To Mars. Not a hardcore fan mind you, I don't belong to their sizable fanclub or have any tattoos in their honor... but I enjoy a lot of their music. That's why their latest effort is so frustrating for me. It has a lot of good ideas but it almost never fully commits to them. The album starts off strong with "Birth", an interesting opener that sets a tone I wish the rest of the album had followed.
I wasn't a big fan of the bands last effort 'This is War' and it's grandiose feel or it's crowd pleasing chants. I enjoyed a few songs and none of it was awful, just not my taste. Luckily that stuff has been toned back a bit on this newest album, but not enough to let it come into its own. The two singles "Up in the Air" and "Conquistador" are exceptionally radio friendly and easy to digest but the theatrical elements carried over from 'TIW' do nothing for the songs.
The rest of the album is all over the place in terms of quality. "City of Angels" is a serviceable balled but the generic lyrics we've heard many times before about dreams and having them whilst in L.A. just make it feel dull and derivative. It wouldn't be so bad if "Bright Lights" didn't do the exact same shtick later on in the album. Rounding off the trio of decent but entirerly forgettable songs is "Do or Die", which oddly sounds like it would be right at home on a Katy Perry album.
Now onto the good stuff. "The Race" has a lot of great instrumental stuff going for it, including a guitar pick up late in the song that feels like it's straight from AFI's 2009 effort 'Crash Love'. Then we delve into the slower "End Of All Days". Personally I love this song. Say what you will about Jared Leto, but he has got a great voice and it shows here. "Pyres Of Varanasi" is mostly an instrumental and a good one at that. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it shows that the electrical side of 30 Seconds To Mars has a lot of promise. More on that in a bit. "Convergence" is another instrumental but it falls more on the side of filler. It's soothing at least, as opposed to brash and annoying like many instrumental fillers tend to be.
It also leads us into what I believe to be the best song on this album by far. "Northern Lights" is the only song that I feel delivers on the promise and tone of the opening. First and foremost, it's interesting. I know that doesn't sound like high praise or anything, but it is in this context. It has an interesting sound, interesting lyrics, and most of all it holds your interest. It feels as though this band is stuck between two sounds. The one songs like "Birth", "Pyres Of Varanasi", and "Northern Lights" give us... and the one that feels leftover from 'TIW'. The problem being that the reserved, electronically infused sound of those few songs is much better and dare I repeat myself, more interesting, than the latter.
Ironically the sound I'm aching for has much more in common with 30STM's debut album than their last two efforts. Oh, I almost forgot the closing of this album. "Depuis Le Debut" is less a song and more like a few ideas thrown together that sound like they could be interesting but then never fully commits to them. Like this album as a whole! Overall it's not a bad offering. It's got some decent stuff, some boring stuff, and some really interesting stuff. Now they just need to stick with the interesting stuff for their next album.
Recommended Songs:
-"Birth"
-"End Of All Days"
-"The Race"
-"Pyres Of Varanasi"
-"Northern Lights"
