Thirty Seconds To Mars Drowns In Its Own Bombast

It's that chorus that dooms Thirty Seconds To Mars. Every time you think you're going to catch a breather that blasted chorus comes back asking the needless question "Do you believe that you can walk on water?" If I haven't figured out by now that the answer is no then there really is no hope for me. "Walk On Water" does have some things going for it. Vocalist Jared Leto's pipes are in fine shape even if he uses them in the service of over the top patriotism that, while very touching, isn't what this planet needs right now. Tomo Milicevic gives this outing a decided keyboard sheen, proving the production values were top notch. Shannon Leto adds a workmanlike performance on drums that only heightens the pathos the video is trying to put across. Impressively it was filmed in one day, that day being this past July 4th. There are snippets of real Americans doing everything from swimming to boxing to skateboarding. Thirty Seconds To Mars is proclaiming "This is our way of life people! Try and compromise that on our watch. This threesome's energy cannot be denied. They lose themselves in the material, no apologies forthcoming. At a shade under 3 1/2 minutes that's a lot of oomph to unleash but Thirty Seconds To Mars appears in it for the long haul. If inspiration was the goal the band didn't find its mark, largely in part due to the over the top visual imagery nestled in lyrics such as: "Listen up hear the patriots shout 'Times are changing' Changing times are a common thread in this song. Again, I am imagining the goal is to get the apathetic among us to get off our butts and find something to change about our troubled world that's giving us fits. Is it heavy handed? Sure, that's a legitimate gripe. Here we are in 2017 and the USA still doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. As a consequence bands like Thirty Seconds To Mars roll out the booming sounds they know will get the beer taps flowing and alpha males on the warpath. "Walk On Water" reminds me of the nerdy kid in elementary school who was always shouting "Pick Me! Pick Me!" because he had practically all the answers in class and couldn't help reminding everyone else how much smarter he was in comparison to them. As a result "Walk On Water" hints at a lot but delivers very little. At present people's lives are going through the shredder. A track like "Walk On Water" doesn't lighten loads, it drowns the entire community. A slightly softer touch would have worked better. As it stands I'm begging for the opportunity to towel off.