Five years after America, Thirty Seconds to Mars are back with a new record. Out on Friday 15th September, It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day is arguably one of the band’s most mainstream sounding entry to date. 30STM have continued to evolve over the years, and have gone for simple, emotive songs. The result is an album that sounds like a Sunday afternoon barbeque with fewer alternative elements than previous albums, but with a potentially wider audience appeal.
With It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day, Leto has transformed the band into something bigger, honing that epic mainstream stadium sound that they’ve been developing since 2013’s Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams. Leto is the king of reinvention and somehow makes every era of 30STM feel like a natural, enjoyable and intriguing transition. Always fitting into the predominant music culture of the time, 30STM are probably one of very few bands from the 2000s appealing to younger and younger audiences with every record (kind of like how Jared Leto doesn’t seem to be ageing at all …). But there are very few bands who have changed their sound as successfully as 30STM. The Leto brothers are not afraid to take risks and step out into the unknown when making music.
It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day is a beautiful and ethereal album. The album opens with lead single, “Stuck”, a song so very different from the band’s roots, but a song that is fun, catchy and totally enjoyable. And the record continues along this thread of radio-ready, semi-pop songs to chill out to. The melodic focus of the record gives more focus to instrumental elements as well as to Leto’s vocals and serves as a reminder of the immense talent behind this passion project.
It’s a record that draws you in slowly, and at times feels a little pretentious (even for Leto) but it’s an enjoyable record. If you haven’t enjoyed the musical progression of their recent albums, you’re probably going to want to sit this one out, but if you’re a fan of where the band have been headed so far, or you’ve got an open mind it’s definitely worth a listen. It’s enjoyable, but maybe not their most memorable record. It won’t set the world on fire, but the songs will sound absolutely beautiful with stadium acoustics. While the record isn’t going to be on a list of my regular repeats, it does feel like summer and I’m so down for that.