Muse

was going to add to Muse - The Resistance but decided to start all over.

new album The 2nd Law was released just today. hard to believe that they are such a huge rock band these days.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31700000/The-2nd-Law-muse-31724776-1280-800.png

i like this new single, have heard it on the radio quite a few times already. better than most stuff modern rock stations play these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w

The name "The 2nd Law" references the Second law of thermodynamics, which is quoted in the track "Unsustainable" as follows:

All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases. Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted and useless. New energy cannot be created and high grade energy is being destroyed.

"madness" has been on the radio for months at this point and somehow i'm not tired of it. it's probably the only muse song i legit like (other than maybe "supermassive black hole") and actually i have to say it is kind of great.

i can't believe how big "Madness" is. Muse might be the biggest band in America from England at the moment.

yeah that song refuses to die. the follow-up single on US radio "Panic Station" is pretty great, as piles of '80s homages go.

I may be completely wrong on this, but it didn't feel like their most recent album (The 2nd Law) was being pushed anywhere near as hard here as The Resistance was... it seemed that they were on every single fuckin' TV show either performing or being used as background music around that time, but the campaign around The 2nd Law felt a hell of a lot quieter.

I tried to give you up, but I'm addicted.

Madness reminds me of I Want To Break Free, oddly.

yeah, me too

Origin of Symmetry is a lot weirder than a mainstream rock record has any right to be, and I still like it (it was my fav album when I was 14, leave me alone). The 1st half is full of jams. After that though I really wish they had faded into obscurity and gone into management or what the fuck ever.

i turned on KROQ today and they said, here is the new Muse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTcJWhmdzpg

*for Sandy

This sounds like a shit a-ha tribute band.

So I'm listening to the new record, Drones, right now. Now, I know that Muse being ludicrous and over-the-top is hardly news, but I'm over halfway through and I haven't stopped laughing my tits off yet.

Quietus review pretty hilarious - http://thequietus.com/articles/18182-muse-drones-review

Ah, it's Mr. Agreeable.

It doesn't seem like five minutes since Muse were playing Wembley circa Black Holes and Revelations, but that was actually 8 years ago... fucking hell! The new record does have moments of hilarity, but I'm quite sure the band didn't plan it that way.

They played Bluesfest here last night and I decided to try to catch it from the fence; got a good view of a video screen and decent sound. I really thought they were great! Lots of old stuff, hit all the right bombastic stadium rock buttons.

I was just thinking of this lot the other day when thinking about stuff from the '00s...

...when this band first appeared, I had 'em pegged as yet another band that sprang up in the wake of the success of "old school" Radiohead, particularly when I heard 'Unintended' ... I certainly wouldn't have banked on 'em becoming the huge stadium act they were briefly about 10 years ago.

I still like Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations ... the last three albums have really failed to set the world on fire though, eh?

Having said that, I really haven't spent much time with The 2nd Law.

UN-SUS-TAIN-A-BLE

pneeeeeeeoooowwwsqueesqueesquee!!!

Absolution > Black Holes and Revelations > Drones
> The Resistance > Origin of Symmetry > Showbiz > The 2nd Law

Drones > The Resistance > Origin of Symmetry

get out

Drones and The Resistance are very good records - Origin of Symmetry is a wildly overrated one, especially by Muse's own fans. Muse's lyrics have been silly from the beginning.

I have to say, Simulation Theory sounds like they finally skipped ahead to the level of pop streamlining they've always longed for.

it's their most enjoyable album in at least a decade. nothing i'll rep for on the level of Knights of Cydonia, but Something Human is pretty good at least

the p4k review was otm about them finally finding the right level of camp, they've finally made something that sounds fun in how it plays around with silly genre experiments, without any overly earnest stadium rock clunkers or attempts at both 'getting political' and 'rocking out' that dont really succeed at either

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LgLcDg15SM

Propaganda is a ridiculous song - Prince imitation with dubstep wubs and a bluesy acoustic solo - and this sort of nonsense is what i want i've been wanting more of from them for a long time

and Propaganda was produced by Timbaland? lol

yes to what ufo says - their clear best since at least bh&r

I listened to the new one yesterday, and I don't like or enjoy it all that much - for me, their second worst after The 2nd Law. Drones and The Resistance both leagues ahead.

i finally decided to play something besides The B-52's and threw this on for the first time. it checks off everything that i love about this band. way over the top ballistic music and hits my guilty pleasure zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0UWT0dFSQE

The main problem that I have with the record is that all this supposed '80s synthpop influence is mere window dressing on a batch of songs which at their core are Muse by numbers. Far too many times on this album did Matt's vocal melodies remind me clearly of other Muse songs. I think he's finally ran out of melodies.

i have only heard this once and can see this as Muse by the numbers. will be interesting to see if i go back to it much. ILM hates Muse so i didn't expect many to even listen, glad you gave it a go.

Since then I've given it a few more listens and there's a couple of songs that have grown on me, but I still feel that Drones and The Resistance are better records. I don't have a problem with Muse at all - in fact, I think when they're at their best they're fantastic at what they do! I just feel that at his point they've painted themselves into a bit of a corner - they need something new to write about, and to stop going over old ground melodically.

Ok which one of you fuckers secret santa'd me the new Muse cd? Recently moved and been keeping my address under wraps, but I do know three ilxors have my address. I didn't ask for this. This is an outrage. Out yourself.

please rank the tracks

jesus christ don't make me do that

:D

(not me I hasten to add)

A Christmas miracle!

Also

This is an outrage.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTe_4HwsYK8kzYItcQqjH10MNx6NUdR2411NNmNLEBbmIsZq-ruFQ

https://i.imgur.com/uSOX5xg.jpg

Return address is Sandbag ltd Reading, but that's the shop it's been ordered at. No note accompanying this ball and chain of a gift.

Would be happy to pass this on to someone on here who might actually care. It's still shrink-wrapped and I can guarantee you it will stay that way.

This is genuinely one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

You guys are alright.

I've commented negatively on the cover of this cd on the noteworthy album covers thread, I confess, but this was *not* what was supposed to happen.

LJ, have to admit I pegged u as the culprit for a sec but kind of knew you wouldn't blow yr wad on a dire Muse cd.

I've ruled out my irl friends. It *must* be someone from here, or else it's Muse themselves sending out cd's because the thing ain't selling. Otherwise itisamystery.jpg

dissident anti-bildt dutch loyalist and language extinction fan imo

:DDD

Thought abt the title being a ~subtle~ clue about/towards me, but it's 'Simulation Theory' and I've got nothing.

(well, I can think of something, but the Ms. doesn't simulate iirc)

ffs

Otm. First one to come up with a relatively tight explanation gets the cd. Or just say 'I want the cd'. Otherwise it will be binned.

Plenty of Muse fans in Holland, give it to a random person in the HEMA.

I almost want to claim it, just so I can possess a piece of ilx lore.

Almost.

Send me yr address thru ilxmail and it's yours Austin.

(I will have to fp you, ofcourse, for wanting Muse's latest, but you can take it on the chin iirc <3)

Haha, I wouldn't do that. I'm on the west coast of the US. It would probably cost you as much to mail it as it would for me to just buy a copy of my own.

Which certainly isn't going to happen.

Uhmm.. You don't seem to understand how much I want to get rid of this awful thing.

Is it the Super Deluxe edition?

I would love to hear this rip off of synthwave just so I can hate them even more.

If you seriously want to get rid of it enough to send it to Canada, 'I want the cd. They put on a good show last year.

I underrated Simulation Theory. cringe all you like, this shit bangs.

it's at least ridiculous in a pretty fun way which is more than they'd managed for a long long time and reminded me of why they were so formative for me lol

more ridiculous Muse = better Muse

New Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d55ELY17CFM

Metel Muse

pretty dire

one of their worst singles ever lol

tbf muse have for a long time (always) been an experiment in bad taste that's occasionally brooked fun results. this is a catastrophic-to-the-point-of-near-enjoyment verse married to a very Muse chorus. it doesn't really work. the guitar breakdowns are terrible. there's very little way to really think about this productively. i probably won't listen to it again

it's such a clunky disjointed mess and even the individual parts don't work at all let alone all smashed together, the only thing of theirs i can think of that's this much of a mess is "unsustainable", that dubstep disaster track

there are plenty of muse songs where the hook sucks or the guitar sucks or whatever but this is a low they rarely manage to reach

yeah I was thinking they'd brought back the 2nd Law wubs for this, but made them somehow worse

it's weird coz at their biting-Rachmaninov peak the songs really did hold together, even the ambitious stuff like Citizen Erased or Butterflies & Hurricanes (both of which are up their with their best imo)

feels like Bellamy has kind of unlearned songwriting

i like it

The wheat-to-chaff ratio with Muse is very high. There are four Muse songs that I can sort-of listen to: Plug In Baby (the song that launched a million YouTube guitar videos), Hysteria (because the guitar solo is actually a proper solo rather than the same arpeggiated sequence again like most of their songs), Supermassive Black Hole (didn't trad Muse fans hate this when it came out because it's relatively unlike their previous songs? anyway that might be why I like it), and Survival (which manages the kind of pompous ridiculousness this new song tries to hit but can't).

given this four listens and now i'm out, i tried. liked the heaviness of it on first listen but really this just has a bunch of their ideas recycled.

I tried listening to the new album but lost my hearing by the second song.

I sampled a few songs out of morbid curiosity.... just terrible.

new one is dreadful and leans into all their worst tendencies which is a shame because the last album was actually pretty decent

"they're great live"

I haven't unreservedly liked anything by them since Black Holes and Revelations and I've thought everything since Drones has been downright terrible.

I haven't unreservedly liked any of their albums, which, from a peak of Origin Of Symmetry, have declined at first slowly, then precipitously, with as ufo says only Simulation Theory as very slight respite from just about the worst music possible

"they're great live"

They were, at the one show I saw!

To be fair, I haven't listened to any of their older albums in probably 7-8 years. The newer stuff has been so awful that I don't really want to grapple with how those ones I used to like might hold up or not.

origin of symmetry & absolution are decent but a bit inconsistent, bh&r doubles down on that inconsistency, the next three are mostly dreadful, and simulation theory is actually remarkably solid but doesn't hit the highs of their best material

basically this yeah. OOS and absolution are in the main unrecognisably great - like, clearly the same band but with wildly improved writing and sonics - compared to most of what they've come out with lately

oh and showbiz is just a bizarre debut album, i have no idea what they were listening to because a lot of it is deeply alien and sounds like nothing much else at all, though it's largely not very good either. i have no idea how they got signed

the song 'sunburn' alone probably. yeah it is a weird, bad album

"cave" is pretty great too but those are about the only worthwhile tracks on it

To be fair, I haven't listened to any of their older albums in probably 7-8 years. The newer stuff has been so awful that I don't really want to grapple with how those ones I used to like might hold up or not.

This is exactly how I feel. Albums 2-4 had their moments, I even kinda liked The Resistance, but everything I've heard since (just a song or two here and there) has been so unbelievably bad I'm terrified to revisit the old stuff.

people always say they're great live, and really lean on that they're meant to put on a spectacular show and be amazing live, but if all they do is play songs by Muse surely it can't be good

I can definitely imagine their music going over really well live. I saw Coldplay in 2003 — they were great. Similarly, Rammstein put on an incredible show in 2010 and I never listen to their studio albums, even though I own most of them. Iron Maiden are also a hell of a lot more fun to see than to listen to at home.

i saw them in 2010 during my teen muse fandom & it was pretty good but i don't think i'd be that moved if i saw the same concert now. stage set-up was the most ridiculous they ever had, with video screen pillars that they performed on for a bunch of the set

I saw Coldplay in 2005, my grandparents bought tickets for the entire family after hearing me talk about being a big fan of Goldfrapp and confusing the two because they sound similar (!) I don't really remember much about the show per se but I do remember seeing a man take a line of cocaine during "Fix You" so someone had a wild night at least

if all they do is play songs by Muse

Fake news. They actually play the Third Eye Blind catalogue.

One of the weirdest things about Muse: they were teenagers who were into Mega City Four and Senseless Things in about 1994

i still want to know what they were listening to when they made their first album because a lot of that is deeply strange rock music that doesn't really sound like anything else i've ever heard. it isn't very good for the most part, but where are all those weird latin-sounding chord progressions coming from, for instance

Beyond the basic tenants of classical piano, Metallica and what not (also maybe stuff John Leckie was showing them) I'm not sure what all the touchstones were, but I do know Matt's travels around Europe as a teenager and hearing lots of flamenco apparently fed into it - especially Uno.