“Kings and Queens” by Thirty Seconds to Mars, Sunday, December 8, 2024
Thirty Seconds to Mars’ third album, This Is War, is about overcoming conflict. The band had been “at war” with their record label, EMI, claiming that the contract they signed was not binding in their home state of California due to the contract’s duration. The band eventually made a documentary titled Artifact about the lawsuit and took aim at the exploitative role of labels, allowing fans, not just of the band but all artists, to see the seedy side of the music business. Before releasing Artifact, the lawsuit was settled, and Thirty Seconds to Mars signed a new deal with EMI, renegotiating their terms. Both parties were able to come to favorable terms to create a contract that worked better in the changing music business of the coming decade of the 2010s.
FATHER HAS SPOKEN. For an album about conflict in the music industry, This Is War is a very hopeful album. This is probably due to the production by two legendary rock producers. Mark Ellis, known in the studio as Flood, became famous for his productions in the ‘80s synth-pop and British rock acts such as New Order, Depeche Mode, and a-ha before becoming instrumental in the records of Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, and White Lies, to name a few. The other producer, Steve Lillywhite, was also instrumental in producing some of the biggest acts in the ‘80s from Peter Gabriel to The Talking Heads. He continued to produce in the ‘90s and ‘00s for bands like The La’s, The Dave Matthews Band, Switchfoot, Jason Mraz, and The Killers. Flood and Lillywhite represent two styles that were popularized in the ‘80s, and both producers worked with a band that perhaps embodied the ‘80s and ‘90s pop-rock, U2. Lillywhite produced U2’s first three albums and continued to work with the band in the ‘90s. Flood first worked with U2 on their biggest album, The Joshua Tree. In fact, along with Brian Eno, Lillywhite and Flood helped to shape U2’s anthemic and sometimes experimental sound into the stadium rock band they still are today. For second generation post-punk bands like The Killers and Thirty Seconds to Mars, alternating between Lillywhite and Flood’s production seems like a great way to replicate rock’s arguably most accessible and commercially viable moments. Thirty Seconds to Mars’ departure from experimental dark rock on their first two albums to the anthemic boosted them into critical and commercially success.
THE AGE OF MAN IS OVER. Steve Lillywhite and Flood’s production along with anthemic bands such as U2 and The Killers bring out a certain spiritual sound in rock music. It feels like this was what Thirty Seconds to Mars’ This Is War tries to capture. Many of the songs feature recordings of fans singing. The band hosted events called “The Summit,” which gathered around 1,000 fans to record lines from This Is War. The communal nature of the album and its recording process sound spiritual, like U2 or the Christian worship bands inspired by U2. But Thirty Seconds to Mars is not a Christian band, nor is its lyricist and frontman Jared Leto religious, other than starting a parody cult in 2013. In the song “100 Suns,” Leto states: “I believe in nothing, not in sin and not in God.” In some ways, the song serves as a key to the album’s interpretation as he goes on to state: “I believe in nothing but the truth of who we are.” The album’s first single “Kings and Queens” tells an origin story of human beings. Rather than an Adam and Eve story, the speaker declares: “We are the kings and the queens of promise . . . Maybe children of a lesser God between heaven and hell.” The powerful song is about the human spirit and the inalienable worth that each person holds as he or she is only “the victims of ourselves.” Despite the dark times that the band endured in creating the album, hope permeates the music and lyrics. It feels almost alien to the dark times we’ve been facing in the past decade with the rise of autocrats, recessions, plague, and the undeniability of climate change manifesting more rapidly every year. Hope seems to have evaporated, particularly for the non-religious. Maybe a rock album from 2009 can remind us that we’re stronger together.
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