Thirty Seconds to Mars ”It’s the End of the World, But It’s a Beautiful Day” Album Review

It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day

Thirty Seconds to Mars

• Genre: Alternative
• Date: 15 Sep, 2023
• Content: explicit
• Track(s): 11
• ℗ 2023 Thirty Seconds to Mars, Under exclusive license to Concord Records. Distributed by Concord.

The Leto brothers are back in music after a five-year hiatus. “It’s The End Of The World, But It’s A Beautiful Day” is the sixth studio album by American rock duo Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band has never been easy to categorize. Jared Leto and the band may have started out as an emo-leaning alternative rock group, but they haven’t truly operated in that genre in a while.

Brother duo Jared and Shannon Leto now make up the group, which has developed both in terms of sound and structure. It feels as though “It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day” is a logical continuation of their last project. But it draws from a far wider range of tones and feelings.

Album Cover Art

A picture of the morning sky on a bright and sunny morning is used as the album cover, illustrating the unnoticed beauty in every sunrise.

Tracks and Features

The melancholy guitar notes of “Stuck,” which eventually intensify into an intense bass thump and fuzzy bass synth, serve as the album’s opening track. Particularly when Leto breaks into wordless vocalizations—dum-dum-badum-bum—bridge, the rhythm is contagious and steers the song from alt-pop to dance territory.

To Leto’s credit, the extra room gives his voice the ability to emote in a manner that some of the band’s earlier work didn’t. Then, for “Life if Beautiful,” which also starts out gently and allows for a more intimate vocal delivery, Thirty Seconds to Mars immediately reign it in. That is, until the chorus with its powerful percussion kicks in. “Seasons” is a lighthearted melody that alternates between mellow acoustic strumming and a softly programmed loop.

The song succeeds as pop music, which is somewhat surprising. Leto puts himself in situations where he might not normally write songs since he tends to find comfort in the uncomfortable. “Get Up Kid” occupies the same territory, doubling down on the point where opportunity and heartbreak collide and discovering an ultimately uplifting message.

On “Love These Days,” Leto expresses his critique of contemporary love, in which so many people place a greater emphasis on heartache than on beauty. The song’s simplistic production and relaxed R&B tempo keep things going. On the surprisingly upbeat song “World On Fire,” the message is reiterated with the lyrics “Let there be light/ And we’ll set this world on fire.”

Thirty Seconds to Mars’ more dramatic moments are missing as a result of the new sound. Instead, the band chooses nuance. The Thirty Seconds to Mars sound that “7:1” most closely resembles is one that is driven by bass-heavy percussion and Leto’s soaring, occasionally shouted vocals. The piano ballad “Never Not Love You” manages to accomplish quite the opposite. The beautiful song contains a one-note piano drone, lovelorn singing, and a musical structure that emphasizes less-is-more.

On “Midnight Prayer,” the drummer Shannon Leto takes center stage and sings. It’s a follow-up appearance because he also provided the vocals for America’s “Remedy.” His performance of the song is one of the album’s highlights, although without the range and power of his brother. “Lost These Days,” an ambient ballad, has a slower tempo. The layering of sounds in the song is deceivingly intricate.

Before “Avalanche,” the album’s closing track, becomes lighter on the electronics and toward a bit more conventional sound, the rhythm comes on for the song’s last chorus, sending it in a club-oriented direction.

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	TIME
1	Stuck	3:02
2	Life Is Beautiful	3:19
3	Seasons	2:46
4	Get Up Kid	2:58
5	Love These Days	3:00
6	World On Fire	3:18
7	7:1	2:45
8	Never Not Love You	3:14
9	Midnight Prayer	2:34
10	Lost These Days	3:05
11	Avalanche	3:24

Album Theme

The album is successful in addressing a variety of emotions and avoiding a narrow focus on the drawbacks of contemporary society.

Production Credits

Producers involved in this album’s curation include: Ammar Malik, Dan Reynolds, Dave Gibson, Jackson Wise, Jared Leto, Johnny Goldstein, Johnny McDaid, John Ryan, Jon Bellion, JP Clark, Keelan O’Hara, MAG, Michael Matosic, The Monsters & Strangerz, Oscar Neidhardt, Shannon Leto, Steve Mac & Tim Randolph.

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