Muse - The 2nd Law

I've just finished listening to The 2nd Law (it's streaming from The Guardian's website) and I must say: I like it. I actually think it's a better album than The Resistance. It's beautiful, rocky, funky, bass-y slap-y, emotional, heartfelt, awe inspiring - truly truly awesome.

Its particular gems are Madness, Supremacy, Panic Station, and Big Freeze. To be honest though, the only song I actually don't like is Unsustainable. But I suspect that one might grow on me given time. There are already some parts that I really like.

I'm not sure if this is their best album so far; it's got fierce competition from "Origin of Symmetry" and "Black Holes and Revelations". But it's definitely a wonderful album. It's so diverse, yet it works so well as a whole. Muse really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Madness

"Madness" is the new single from Muse's new album "The 2nd Law" (out on October 1st). This is definitely not the Muse we're used to. It's a lot slower than most Muse songs, for a start.

According to NME, Madness was influenced by Queen's "I Want to Break Free", and this is actually quite clear when you listen to it. Madness offers up a little display of Muse's electronic leanings that will apparently feature heavily on The 2nd Law.

Smooth and synthy, Madness is a pleasure to listen to. In fact, despite its lack of "Museness", I think Madness is a lot better than the band's Olympic anthem "Survival".

The Best Songs by Muse

Although this wasn't easy, here is the list I made of my top 10 favorite Muse songs.

Read more...

Have a Listen

Following up on last night's post "Survival", I thought I'd drop you a YouTube link to the song. You know, because I'm helpful like that.

It's worth noting that in just over 15 hours, this video has been watched more than 160,000 times. Which is pretty impressive.

Survival

Well, that was awesome.

It actually was. It sounds...epic, for want of a better word. There's an orchestra involved for crying out loud. And it gets better. Did I detect a choir in there? Yes, yes I did. Some heavy guitar and bass too, of course. Good. It seems like it'll sound damn good live. At any rate, it sounds promising.

As a side-note, I think it's a testament to the internet that the song was up on YouTube within 10 minutes of being played.

It leaves a couple of questions though. "Survival" is going to be on their new album, "The 2nd Law", so it's worth asking if this song will be indicative of the sound of that album? Do you want it to be?

We'll find out in a few months I suppose. Feel free to share your thoughts, on "Survival", Muse or the best way to remove grass stains from a white t-shirt.

If you missed the radio broadcast, you can find "Survival on YouTube (as I said) and I'm given to understand that it's available for download about *checks watch* 10 minutes from now. Enjoy.