Californian alt-rock trio Thirty Seconds To Mars have returned with their new single Walk On Water, the first single from their upcoming album. The single is the first new music we have heard from Thirty Seconds To Mars, lead by the charismatic Oscar winning frontman Jared Leto, since 2013’s Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams.
Starting with 2009’s This Is War album, I have felt Thirty Seconds To Mars have been evolving past an an alt-rock band to become more of of an artistic expression. The greater influences and use of experimental music techniques definitely helps the band to stand out, but in all honesty I am still torn as to weather it works for them. Love, Lust Faith and Dreams was hit and miss, sometimes sounding amazing and other times just sounding weird and lost. Sadly, I believe that Walk On Water falls into the latter camp.
Most of the 3 minutes this track goes on for is spent with Leto saying “Ohhh” before channeling his inner Bob Dylan to tell us that “times are changing”. The song is stylised as an apparent call to arms, presumably against hate and intolerance, yet seems so lazy and contrived that If it wasn’t for the fact that I follow Jared Leto on Snapchat (I see you judging me) and have seen him teasing this song for days, I would have guessed this was knocked out yesterday evening. Lyrically, it is just a collection of lacklustre phrases, loosely held together by some ‘we are all in this together’ mentality. What ‘this’ is, still remains to be seen but i am sure that it will be revealed over the coming days with press no doubt begging Leto for interview.
To be honest, if you are one of the people who like Thirty Seconds To Mars as an idea and a concept more than a band then you’ll probably love this. If you liked Thirty Seconds To Mars based on the fact that A Beautiful Lie is an absolute banger, then you might want to give this a miss. Despite what I have said above, it isn’t the worst thing they have ever released, but it is by no stretch of the imagination anywhere near the best.
Keep an eye out to see the live television debut of the song this Sunday (August 26th) at the MTV Video Music Awards.
3/10
Reviewed by Alexander Rawstorne