Did the OTT Olympics antics of ‘Survival’ irk your stoic fandom? Did the possibility of dubstep entering the Muse lexicon ring alarm bells?
Looking to skewer your once beloved sci-fi grunge band for one too many stretches into Queen-inspired musical tea parties?
Well then, forget the Skrillex angle. There’s far more bonkers moments to be found on The 2nd Law, the UK trio’s sixth studio album, to use as fodder.
There’s the opening collision between Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ and a James Bond theme that is ‘Supremacy’, or the daft 80s punch of ‘Panic Station’ channelling
Kick-era INXS.
A glistening, cinematic ballad dedicated to terra-forma in ‘Explorers’, that ends with the couplet ‘shhh/go to sleep’, then the two tracks sung by bassist Christ Wolstenholme that sound like the product of a completely different band.
Take your pick.
The delicious irony being that those same overstated, bombastic examples that detractors will use as exhibits in the case for Muse finally losing their marbles, are the same colourful exaggerations that have come to characterise the best things about the band.
Yes, it’s perhaps their least ‘rock’, most ‘pop’ set yet (re: electro throb love song ‘Madness’ or U2-aping ‘Big Freeze’) – but that would be like saying Van Gogh’s Starry Night was done with a box of crayons.
Which is to say, Muse are still artists, just artists having fun with an exceptionally broad canvas.
Eclectic, daring, and yes, occasionally exhausting to the ear – The 2nd Law may well be Muse’s most eccentric set yet; and from a band who explored the far reaches of space rock and came back with ‘Supermassive Black Hole’, ‘Space Dementia’, and ‘Knights of Cydonia’ – that’s saying an awful lot.
You can read a full opinion piece on Muse’s latest album here.
