Thirty Seconds to Mars - It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day (Album Review)
Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Written by Jack Terry
Photo: Bartholomew Cubbins
Whether it's down to an artist’s maturity, necessity or the shifting tides of public taste, change is the only constant in modern music. Thirty Seconds To Mars has always worn that fact on their sleeves, and over the course of 25 years have shifted from emo-flecked rock to electronic art-pop with various stops in between. With their sixth album 'It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day' their unknowable journey continues, but the scenery is a drag.
As sonically convoluted as its title is, this is an album that goes to several places in a short time without offering much in the way of lasting impressions. The opening song, Stuck, is an electronic dancehall number that pulsates and thumps, while Midnight Prayer offers up a lo-fi trip-hop beat that steadily builds.
Set alongside them are myriad attempts to lift the styles of other popular artists. Never Not Love You is lovesick tripe in the vein of Ed Sheeran, while Life Is Beautiful might as well be an Imagine Dragons offcut.
On the surface, there are moments that will get toes tapping and heads bobbing, but it's tough to ignore just how uninspired the Leto brothers — guitarist-vocalist Jared and drummer Shannon — have become.
The final track, Avalanche, heavy-handedly taps into the Thirty Seconds To Mars of old in one last stab at nostalgia. Jared Leto digs deep and belts out the lyrics in a manner that wouldn't have sounded out of place on their 2005 creative high-water mark 'A Beautiful Lie'. While fans may appreciate this on paper, any flashes of their older sound feel desperate, disjointed and disingenuous here.
'It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day' feels like an album that is trying to be for everyone, but instead comes across as a vapid and empty compilation. Leto previously revealed that they'd written more than 200 songs for this album, and if these are their best selections, perhaps it's time to bury this band.
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