Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (stylized as LOVE LUST FAITH + DREAMS) is the fourth studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released through Virgin Records in the Netherlands on May 17, 2013,[1] in the UK on May 20 and in the US on May 21.[2] It was their first album in four years, following This Is War (2009), as well as their last album released through Virgin.
The record carries the concept album format of This Is War and expands the spectrum to revolve around the themes after which it is named. Its sound follows the experimental direction found on some of the band's previous work, incorporating elements of art rock and electronic music. The album was promoted with three singles, "Up in the Air", "Do or Die", and "City of Angels", two of which managed to chart within the top ten on the US Alternative Songs chart.
Upon release, the album was well received by critics, who called it a return to form for the band. It was the group's second consecutive nomination for the Echo Music Prize. The album debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band's first top ten album on the chart, and reached the top ten in more than fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Germany.
Background and recording
In 2009, Thirty Seconds to Mars released their third studio album This Is War. The album saw a new direction taken by the band, employing darker lyrical themes, a louder sound and "much more electronic and experimental, with lots of vintage synths."[3][4]This Is War has since sold over four million albums and one million singles solicited from the album worldwide, making the album the band's most commercially successful so far. The tour that followed, the Into the Wild Tour, Hurricane Tour and Closer to the Edge Tour, spanned two years and broke the Guinness World Record for the "Longest Concert Tour by a Rock Band", playing a total of 309 shows.[5]
To follow up This Is War, the band began to work on their fourth studio album immediately after the conclusion of the Closer to the Edge Tour. Frontman Jared Leto wanted "an album that has ebb and flow and content and structure.", a sharp contrast to the band's previous work.[6] Leto began writing for the album in December 2011, and by the time the band started the recording sessions for Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams in April 2012, he had amassed a total of 50 songs.[7]
On April 23, 2012, Rolling Stone released an article revealing that Thirty Seconds to Mars was currently in the studio recording a fourth LP. According to the article, the band previewed some of the new material in their April 27 VyRT stream, including a song called "Witness". It also stated that they were interested in working with other artists for the album. The band's official Twitter account confirmed this news. On April 25, 2012 MTV Buzzworthy confirmed that they are working with famed record producer Steve Lillywhite, who had previously worked with U2, Peter Gabriel, and The Killers, among others.[8]
The recording sessions for Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams took place from April to December 2012, at the Laboratory in Los Angeles, U.S.A.[9] In September 2012, "The Summit", an event where fans are invited to contribute chorus vocals to tracks on the album and previously held to record choral vocals for This Is War in 2009, was held. Unlike This Is War, where an entire audience-sized crowd took part in the recording, the summit that took place for the recording of Love, Lust Faith and Dreams was more stripped-down and organic, with only 20 to 25 people contributing vocals to the record.[10]
Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams is a concept album revolving around the themes after which the album is named. The album is divided into four segments, each named Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams, respectively, with the beginning of each segment declared by a female voice proclaiming the name of the segment before the beginning of a song or at the end of an interlude which introduces the next segment of the album.[11]
A more specific album concept can be seen inside the CD. It is recognized by four colors, with the color red standing for Love, yellow for Lust, green for Faith, and blue for Dreams. LOVE contains "Birth" and "Conquistador". LUST contains "Up in the Air", "City of Angels", "The Race", "End of All Days" and "Pyres of Varanasi". FAITH contains "Bright Lights", "Do or Die" and "Convergence". DREAMS contains "Northern Lights", and "Depuis Le Début".
The artwork for Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams features Damien Hirst's 2011 gloss-on-canvas work, entitled "Isonicotinic Acid Ethyl Ester".[15] The painting is part of Hirst's spot painting series. It has also been announced that a second piece of artwork from Hirst, a signwriting-on-canvas piece entitled "Monochromatic Sectors from Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Colour Ring, Dark Centre" will appear inside the booklet of the Compact Disc version of the album. This art is actually featured on the CD itself.[16]
Early promotion for the album during its latter recording stages were two programs on the online premium Streaming media website VyRT, a service which was founded by the band themselves in the latter stages of the This Is War album cycle. The two programs, The Mars Laboratory and The Mars Laboratory II showed members of VyRT an insight into the band's activity during the recording of the album and also debuted acoustic versions of brand new songs from Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams. The Mars Laboratory aired on April 27, 2012[17] while The Mars Laboratory II aired during post-production of the album on December 1, 2012.[18]
On May 2, 2013, the band's Twitter hashtag, "#MARSmay21st", successfully reached the worldwide trending hashtags on the social platform. As a way of saying thanks to their fans, the band released the lyric video for "Conquistador" on Vevo the same day, two weeks before the album's release.[19]
Singles
"Up in the Air" was released as the lead single from Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams on March 19, 2013. It was announced it would be the first single from the new album on February 28 via Twitter. A CD copy of the single was sent to NASA and SpaceX for launch aboard the Dragon spacecraft on SpaceX CRS-2.[20] The mission was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 1, 2013, sending the first ever commercial copy of music into space. The spacecraft berthed and docked with the International Space Station on March 3, 2013, making the single available to play by the Expedition 35 crew aboard the station. The song made its worldwide debut aboard the station on March 18, 2013 and was released as a Digital download single on iTunes the next day.[21] The music video was released on April 19, 2013 worldwide on Vevo.[22]
"City of Angels" was sent to US Modern rock radio as a promotional single from Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams on July 23, 2013.[23] A music video for "City of Angels", featuring Bartholomew Cubbins as director, was released onto YouTube on October 29, 2013. It was shot over two days on August 18 and 19, 2013, in Los Angeles, California.
Despite not being released as an official single, "Conquistador" was used in a trailer promoting the upcoming video game WWE 2K14.[24]
"Do or Die" was released as a promotional single from Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams on September 9, 2013 in Europe.[25] During the Summer European Tour, Jared confirmed the band was recording footage for a live video for the song. The music video was released on August 5, 2013 worldwide on Vevo.
Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams received generally positive reviews from music critics.[35][36] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 62, based on 11 reviews.[26] Emily Zemler from Billboard praised the stylistic variety and experimentation, writing that the album "invests itself fully and artfully in its own vision" infused with "an even fuller sense of grandeur than heard on past releases", and "offers an opportunity to explore the boundaries of rock".[12]AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine acknowledged the band's musical adventurousness, describing the record as "galvanized for the present, pushing its thick processed guitars, chanted choruses, and clanging keyboards to the forefront, flirting with taboos underneath its shining surface". He felt that the group's "loosening of their stylistic confines" results in their "boldest, brightest, most imaginative record".[27] Andy Ritchie of Rock Sound complimented Jared Leto's vocal performance and the group's musicianship, praising the "massive choruses" and "titanic climaxes," and stated that the album reaffirms that Thirty Seconds to Mars is in a class of its own.[32] In a four-and-a-half star review, Ryan Jones of Alternative Addiction commended the album's lyrical content and musical style, calling the new sounds "deep and plush", and wrote that the "entire record feels like an amazing journey".[37]
Ian Winwood, writing for Kerrang!, found the album "lavish but not cloying, expansive yet often economical, approachable without being familiar", calling it a "release that defies genre" and deeming it as a "grand achievement befitting this most grandiose of bands".[30] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly gave the record an "A−", writing that it displays "throbbing modern-rock anthems" which "offer visceral, hands-up hedonism", although he found the album's narrative inexplicable.[29] Dan Slessor of Alternative Press commended the band's capacity for writing "titanic choruses full of sweeping drama in a manner that is almost untouchable", but felt that with "shorter songs and more restrained production" the album lacks the "epic quality" of its predecessor This Is War.[28] In his review for Sound & Vision, Ken Richardson noticed the band's ambition and commended the album's concept.[33] Brent Faulkner of PopMatters gave a mixed response, stating that the album has "its finer moments as well as moments that are overwrought, overextended, and overproduced".[2]Q magazine found it "empty in the extreme",[31] while Uncut called it "wildly overcooked and deeply derivative".[34] John Watt from Drowned in Sound wrote that the album "is a disappointingly tepid affair".[38] Andy Baber of musicOMH felt that the record descends into "something of a mess" despite "starting with what sounded like a clear direction".[39]
Accolades
Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams was named one of the best albums of 2013 by a number of publications, including Alternative Addiction (number two), Melodic (no order), and Under the Radar (number six).[40][41][42] It was ranked as the best album of the year by The Scene Magazine, with critic Shayla Miller writing, "This album’s flow is top-notch, making it quite a neat experience. It’s meant to be listened to as a whole. It is a complete piece of music, and it’s breathtaking."[43] The singles "Up in the Air", "Do or Die", and "City of Angels" were included in 91X's year-end top songs list at number 44, 39 and 33, respectively.[44][45]Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams received a nomination in the category of Best International Rock/Alternative at the 2014 Echo Awards, but lost to Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies by Volbeat.[46] It was the band's second consecutive nomination for the Echo Music Prize.[47]Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams was nominated for Best Album at the 2014 World Music Awards, but lost to Coup d'Etat by G-Dragon.[48] The album also earned the band the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Alternative in two consecutive years in 2013 and 2014.[49][50]
Commercial performance
In the United States, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, selling 53,000 copies in its first week of release according to Nielsen SoundScan. It became the band's first album to reach the top ten of the chart and was also their second-largest sales week in the nation, behind their 2009 album This Is War which opened with 69,000 copies.[51] The album entered both the Billboard's Alternative Albums and Rock Albums charts at number three.[52][53] It also debuted at number six on the magazine's Tastemaker Albums.[54] In March 2014, it re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 25 with sales of over 186,000 copies, following a promotion by the iTunes Store.[55][56] By the end of 2013, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams was included among the best-selling rock albums of the year.[57] As of 2016, the album has sold 394,000 copies in the US.[58]
In the United Kingdom, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams entered the UK Albums Chart at number five and debuted at the top spot of the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, the first album by the band to debut on the chart and secure their first UK Number 1.[59][60] During its first week, the songs "Conquistador" and "City of Angels" appeared in lower regions of the rock chart due to strong digital sales from the album.[61] In December 2013, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), followed by Gold in 2023.[62] In Australia, the album entered the ARIA Charts at number four with first week sales of 4,814 copies.[63] In Russia, it debuted at number five, earning a gold certification in its first week of sales.[64]
In Portugal, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams debuted at number three behind Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and The National's Trouble Will Find Me.[65] After fluctuating down the chart, the album reached the top spot on the issue dated July 15, 2013 and was certified two-times platinum by the Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa (AFP), with sales of over 40,000 copies.[66] In Germany, the album debuted at number three and has since been certified gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), denoting shipments of over 100,000 units throughout the country.[67][68]Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams also reached the top ten in Austria, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Canada, Finland, Norway, Spain, Czech Republic, Estonia, and Ireland.[69]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Jared Leto, except where noted
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor and musician. Known for his method acting in a variety of roles, he has received numerous accolades over a career spanning three decades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Additionally, he is recognised for his musicianship and eccentric stage persona as frontman of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Thirty Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto and Shannon Leto. During the course of its existence, it has undergone various line-up changes with the Leto brothers being the only consistent members.
A Beautiful Lie is the second studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released on August 30, 2005 through Virgin Records. It was produced by Josh Abraham.
30 Seconds to Mars is the debut studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. It was first released on August 27, 2002, by Immortal Records and distributed by Virgin Records. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin, Brian Virtue, and Thirty Seconds to Mars, and was recorded in rural Wyoming during 2001 and early 2002. It had been in the works for a couple of years, with lead vocalist Jared Leto writing the majority of the songs.
Shannon Leto is an American musician best known as the drummer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. He co-founded the group in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, with his younger brother Jared. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success. As of September 2014, the band has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
Tomislav "Tomo" Miličević is a Bosnian-American musician and record producer. He was the lead guitarist of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars from 2003 to 2018. Born in Sarajevo but raised in the United States, Miličević moved to Troy, Michigan, in the early 1980s, where he became active in the local heavy metal scene and played in a number of bands, co-founding Morphic. In 2003, he joined Thirty Seconds to Mars, with whom he achieved worldwide recognition in the mid-2000s after recording the band's second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Its full-length follow-ups, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success.
American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars has released six studio albums, three extended plays, eighteen singles, four promotional singles, one video album and seventeen music videos. The band was formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1998 by brothers Jared Leto and Shannon Leto, with Tomo Miličević joining the band later. The band's debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars, was released through Immortal and Virgin Records in August 2002 and peaked at number 107 on the US Billboard 200 and number one on the US Top Heatseekers, selling more than two million copies worldwide as of March 2011. The album produced two singles, "Capricorn " and "Edge of the Earth".
This Is War is the third studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released on December 8, 2009 through Virgin Records. It was the band's first studio album in four years, after the breakthrough of their previous work, A Beautiful Lie (2005). The album was recorded over a span of two years while the band was in the midst of a legal dispute with Virgin over an alleged breach-of-contract. The case was later settled in April 2009, and the band signed to EMI later that year.
"Kings and Queens" is a song by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their third studio album This Is War (2009). Written by lead vocalist Jared Leto across the United States and South Africa, the track was produced by Flood, Steve Lillywhite and Thirty Seconds to Mars. According to Leto, the lyrics of "Kings and Queens" explore the triumphant feeling of human possibilities. The melody of the song contains several qualities similar to that of 1980s adult contemporary musical works and is imbued with elements of progressive rock. The song was released as the lead single from This Is War on October 13, 2009.
MTV Unplugged is an extended play (EP) and live album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released in the United States on August 19, 2011 by Virgin Records. It features an acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on May 13 of that year for the television series MTV Unplugged. The show's purpose is to present name artists, and feature them stripped of studio equipment. The performance was accompanied by musicians from the Vitamin String Quartet, a gospel choir and included the contribution of the band's fans.
"Up in the Air" is a song recorded by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their fourth studio album, Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013). Written by lead vocalist Jared Leto, who also produced the song with Steve Lillywhite, "Up in the Air" is an introspective and passionate track reflecting upon human consciousness. It marked a departure from much of the band's previous work as it incorporates a more electronic-influenced sound as well as elements from new wave music.
"City of Angels" is a song by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013). Written by lead vocalist Jared Leto, who co-produced the song with Steve Lillywhite, "City of Angels" was inspired by Leto's experience of living in Los Angeles with his family and was influenced by the city's culture. Imbued with elements of synthrock as well as music from the 1980s, the track was cited as an example of the album's variety and experimentation. It was one of the first songs to be written for Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams, but required a long period of time to record.
The Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams Tour was the third worldwide concert tour by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in support of the band's fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams.
"Do or Die" is a song by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013). Written and produced by lead vocalist Jared Leto, "Do or Die" explores the feeling of standing up and living one's dreams using also ironic undertones. The song is styled in electronic rock and imbued with elements of arena rock. It was serviced to mainstream radio in July 2013 in Europe, and was released as a promotional single in the United States in March 2014. A version of the song remixed by Dutch music producer Afrojack was digitally released in March 2014 and later included on the deluxe edition of Afrojack's debut studio album Forget the World (2014).
"Conquistador" is a song by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013). Written by lead vocalist Jared Leto, who also produced the song with Steve Lillywhite, "Conquistador" features combative lyrics and call-and-response verses. Described as the "wild child" of the album, it is an alternative rock song with influences and elements from electronica. Thirty Seconds to Mars premiered the song on Vevo on May 2, 2013, two weeks before the album's release.
The Hunting Party is the sixth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. The album, produced by band members Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson, was released by Warner Bros. Records and Machine Shop on June 13, 2014. It is the first album since Meteora (2003) not to be produced with Rick Rubin, who produced the band's previous three studio albums.
The Carnivores Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by American rock bands Linkin Park and Thirty Seconds to Mars. It was launched in support of Linkin Park's sixth studio album The Hunting Party (2014) and Thirty Seconds to Mars' fourth studio album Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013). The joint tour was officially announced in March 2014 at a press conference, with the full itinerary being revealed. It began on August 8, 2014 in West Palm Beach, Florida and ended on September 19 in Concord, California, visiting arenas and stadiums throughout North America. It was promoted by Live Nation and sponsored in-part by Infinity. American rock band AFI served as the opening act for the tour.
America is the fifth studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released on April 6, 2018 through Interscope Records. It is their first album in five years, after Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), as well as their only release for Interscope, following the band's departure from Virgin Records in 2014. It is also the final album by the band to feature lead guitarist Tomo Miličević, who left the band two months after its release.
It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day is the sixth studio album by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, released on September 15, 2023, through Concord. It is the first album after their debut without guitarist Tomo Miličević who left the band in June 2018.
↑ Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (booklet). Thirty Seconds to Mars. Virgin Records. 2013. 6809932.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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