“I will save you from yourself
Time will change everything about this hell.
Are you lost, can’t find yourself?
You’re north of heaven
Maybe somewhere west of hell”
-‘Birth’
It begins with ‘Birth’, Faith and Dreams, with the single word “Love”, and burns through a dizzying array of emotion.
It is the long awaited new release from Thirty Seconds to Mars, Love Lust Faith + Dreams.
The first single ‘Up in the air’ was literally launched to and from space in collaboration with NASA, streamed for the first time onto the international stage from the astronauts’ official website. The accompanying short film/music video directed by the enigmatic Bartholomew Cubbins propelled the song to easily over 10 million views on just YouTube alone.
“Up in the air
Fucked up on life
All of the laws I’ve broken
Loves that I’ve sacrificed
Is this the end?
End? End? End?
I’ll wrap my hands around your neck
So tight with love, love
A thousand times I tempted fate
A thousand times I played this game
A thousand times that I have said
Today, today, today”
The songs are labeled on the inside of the CD cover, color-coded in the style of the gigantic Damian Hirst spot painting in the background of the video and front-and-center on the album’s cover art, like the spines of old library books, telling us, with a glance, where they should be shelved.
‘Up in the air’ is Love, Lust and Dreams, thrust into the atmosphere by the lyrics and their appeal for an answer, for the muse to reply, they have been chasing a dream, today is the day, “I’ll take no more.”
The album pulls heavily from another emotion, one at the root of them all, Desire. The stronger songs whisper from there, behind the bravado, the poetic allusions, the need to make a stand.
“I am the best she claimed and more
A battle scarred conquistador
This is a fight for our love, lust, hate, desire
We are the children of the great empire
We will, we will, we will rise again”
The second single ‘Conquistador’, Lust and Faith, brings fire to the fight, burning into the skyline that surrender is not an option, the decisive declaration “This is a fight to the death” and the promise that, like a phoenix from the ashes, “We will rise again.”
The third single ‘The Race’ tells us “It began with an ending”, with Lust and Faith,….
“…We were fighting for the world
Hey! My desire never ending
Hey! The race. The race
Love is a dangerous game to play
Hearts are made for breaking and for pain
I’m selfish and I’m cold
I promise you I said:
Never again!
Never again!
No never!”
‘The Race’ is not towards something, nor away, “I’m not running”, it is the struggle, the battle, the will to win against all odds, the survival of the fittest, never admitting defeat.
And this folds into the other songs, the bluesy ‘End of all days’, Lust and “All we need is Faith”, with its deserts and hungry lions, the instrumental ‘Pyres of Varanasi’, the first song recorded and simply Faith, and the other otherworldly ‘Northern Lights’, only Dreams, which floats where:
“We swam among the northern lights
And hid beyond the edge of night
Waiting for the dawn to come
And sang a song
To save us all”
Love Lust Faith + Dreams is a powerful release, filled with heat and passion, that weeks later is still running through my mind. The approximately 44 minutes rounds out well, and I cannot recommend it more, though, I feel like this is just the beginning, that this is the first volume of an epic tale yet to be told.
I was left desiring more.
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