Months and months ago, when Matt Bellamy was asked to describe Muse’s newest album, he stated that it was “a symphonic album … like a full collaboration with an orchestra. There's definitely a few things on the album which are segueing into each other and it's all very orchestral, but that could take over the album, so it could actually be kind of classical act basically, and move away from rock all together.”
He wasn’t joking. While the first few songs are more guitar heavy, The Resistance quickly morphs into Muse’s very own rock opera. Whereas many bands today could never pull this feat off, Muse, ever the masters of genre-hopping and oddly-palatable experimentation, have succeeded.
When the first single “United States of Eurasia” hit the internet, people couldn’t stop saying that it was nothing short of a Queen rip-off, and worried that this trend would ensue throughout the album. To this, I have to say that the only song which slips musically is “Guiding Light”, which sounds like a very bad mix of Keane and My Chemical Romance pretending to be Queen on their third album.
Other than the song titles, which try a tad too hard to establish that theme of avante garde rock opera a la Sigur Ros or Radiohead, the album is really well constructed. Often transcendent, and other times creepy, the album navigates such a wide range of emotions musically that it’s hard to remember that the band is only three guys.
Bellamy croons that “love is our resistance” in the album’s title track, paying tribute to the much over-looked love story in George Orwell’s 1984. But while the album often nods towards dystopian lyrics, it doesn’t end up sounding strictly like an homage to any particular work of art. For example, none of the songs could fit well on any film’s soundtrack, because of the very fact that The Resistance is so cohesive as its own work of art that it must be taken as is. It accomplishes the difficult feat of simultaneously flowing well while being eclectic. It’s every bit as daunting as Phantom of the Opera, but with a lot more different and interesting angles.
The best song of the bunch is the partially French song “I Belong To You/Mon Coeur S’oevre a ta Voix”, a slightly funky take on a traditional opera song. Sliding bass? Yes please.
"We're not droplets in the ocean", Bellamy declares in the aggressive track "Unnatural Selection". Perhaps with this incredibly well titled album, Americans will finally begin to understand this internationally recognized fact.
3.5/5
buy the album on AMAZON, it was released today
Muse -I Belong To You/Mon Coeur S'ouvre a ta Voix [mp3]
3 comments:
Don't shoot me, but I've always had a hard time liking Muse. They just come off as pretentious to me, though I usually like what I hear.
dude no worries.
to be quite honest, I don't consider myself a massive fan. I really like their music, I just never listen to it all of the time. "Resistance" was stuck in my head on my bike ride to work today though.
Yeah, I guess that's how I am too. It just seems like Muse fans - if at all as fanatic as Strokes fans, and I imagine they would be - would be really nuts if someone didn't like them. Or maybe all bands are like that. Or maybe I need more sleep.
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