"Closer to the Edge" is a song written by

Jared Leto Jared Joseph Leto ( ; born December 26, 1971) 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 and a Gold ...

and performed by American rock band

Thirty Seconds to Mars Thirty Seconds to Mars (commonly stylized as 30 Seconds to Mars) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Shannon Leto (drums, ...

. Produced by the band, co-produced by

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

, the track is the seventh track and the third single from their third studio album ''

This Is War ''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 ...

''. It was released in the US on August 20, 2010.

Background

Tomo Miličević Tomislav "Tomo" Miličević (; born September 3, 1979) 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, M ...

, the former lead

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

of 30 Seconds to Mars, said about the song, "A really interesting track. We call it our 'pop' song, but when you really listen to it, you realize that it has a lot of rock glory in it. It's a song that fools you, and I like that. Jared really pushed himself as a songwriter here in that he was trying to reach for a new way of presenting music that was very accessible but not spoon-fed it to the audience. He has a lot of respect for the fans in that way. The guy's a trip - very inspiring to be around and work with."

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

premiered on June 9, 2010, on the band's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

account. The video was directed by Jared Leto as "Bartholomew Cubbins". The video contains concert footage from about 30 performances during their

Into the Wild Tour The Into the Wild Tour (also known as Hurricane Tour and the Closer to the Edge Tour) was the second worldwide concert tour by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars in support of the band's third studio album, This Is War. The tour reached ...

, which commenced on February 19, 2010, and ran till December 18, 2010. The six-minute-long video shows each location played at until a certain date, fan commentary and some backstage footage. "Closer to the Edge" is not the band's first live video, being preceded by "Edge of the Earth".

Critical reception

The video was received with highly positive reviews by critics. Australia's RadarRadio referred to the video as "epic". UK rock music website RockLouder also called the video "lovely" and "worth the watch". About.com's Grierson says "'Closer to the Edge' emphasize atmospheric flourishes over melodic assurance."

Commercial performance

"Closer to the Edge" debuted on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on July 11, 2010, at number 90 before climbing to number 82 the following week. On July 18, 2010, the single rose a further four places to number 78. The single also found success on the UK Rock Chart, where it climbed until peaking at number 1 on July 11, 2010, knocking The Pretty Reckless' "

Make Me Wanna Die "Make Me Wanna Die" is a song by American rock band the Pretty Reckless from their eponymous debut extended play (2010) and their debut studio album, ''Light Me Up'' (2010). The song was written by Taylor Momsen, Ben Phillips, and Kato Khandwal ...

" off its seven-week reign. The single also peaked at number 88 on the Dutch

Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...

. It is also their highest charted single in Australia, peaking at number 13, becoming platinum. It debuted at number 99 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the chart dated May 21, 2011, more than two months after it dropped off of the Rock Songs and

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

charts. The song impacted radio on August 31, 2010. It became the band's first single to be played on

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

radio, with the first stations added being

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

WNIC WNIC (100.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Dearborn, Michigan and serving the Metro Detroit media market. Owned by iHeartMedia, WNIC broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format. Each year, usually on the first Friday of Novemb ...

(which changed formats to

adult top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems ...

in August

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

) during Spring 2011 and

WLER-FM WLER-FM (97.7 MHz) is an active rock radio station that officially can be heard in Butler County, Pennsylvania, but can also be heard in parts of northern Allegheny County, including Pittsburgh. The station, which is owned by the Butler County R ...

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantry ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Track listings

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control Thirty Seconds to Mars songs 2010 singles Songs written by Jared Leto Song recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Virgin Records singles 2009 songs