Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (stylized as Love Lust Faith + Dreams) is the fourth studio album from American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. It was released through EMI and Virgin Records on May 17, 2013. In 2009, 30 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." 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.
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. 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.
On April 23, 2012, Rolling Stone released an article revealing that 30 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 25th, 2012 MTV Buzzworthy confirmed that they are working with famed record Producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, The Killers)