Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
“I’d always wanted to write an album about the places I’d been and the people I’d interviewed”
When is a political album not a political album?
When it’s the new record by actor and singer Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars.
America, the band’s fifth album, is out today and for all its bombastic stadium rock and pseudo-inspiring call to action, tries to steer clear of any specifics, choosing instead to paint slogans with a rather broader brush.
Walk on Water, the taster track from the record which was released last summer, was accompanied by a video stamped with figures about US migration, prison statistics, footage of North Korean nuclear launches, protests and, of course, the President Donald J Trump.
The targets are wide but it’s not immediately clear what Leto, his brother Shannon and the rest of the band are asking people to protest about.
“Walk on Water is a political song about standing up and fighting for what you believe in,” insists Leto, talking to the BBC between dates of the band’s UK tour in March.
“It’s about change and it’s about the possibilities that we have at our fingertips.”
The album’s promotional campaign allows users to design their own cover, picking five words which best define the United States of America.