The Leto brothers band, which has shrunk to a duo, is in an electronic dance-pop frenzy.
Shortly after the turn of the millennium, Jared Leto was the profound and artistically ambitious Hollywood savior who knew how to convince and surprise both as an actor and in the dual role of frontman with his band Thirty Seconds To Mars. His musical career, accompanied by older brother Shannon Leto on drums, was always stylistically influenced by the mime virtue of changeability. Which is why it’s no surprise that after epic, experimental prog beginnings under the aegis of Bob Ezrin or alternative rock ambitions, album number six comes as an electronic dance-pop record with songs compressed into radio hit format.
Conceptually commercially, the charts checklist is carefully ticked off here, from Backstreet Boys reminiscences to Auto-Tune arias, gated reverb drums or Millennial Whoops to Skrillex sounds. Sometimes kitschy like The Killers in Bon Jovi mode (“Never Not Love You”), sometimes flirting with Coldplay virtues (“Lost These Days”) or the biggest Kings Of Leon single success with “World On Fire” is more than just the title, but it’s all – admittedly – pretty much over the top. At the same time, it is also as consistent and perfectly staged as one would expect from a manic perfectionist like Jared Leto. Method musicianship, if you will. And the finale with “Avalanche” is truly an anthemic delight.