James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
It seems a little strange to consider that it’s now been a decade since Muse released their first album Showbiz; the Devonshire trio have never come across as being so, well, old! This impression has no doubt been fuelled by the way in which they have musically evolved on each record since their debut, and their latest offering, The Resistance, is no exception. Once again we find the group pushing the boundaries of their sound and their subject matter, but with past themes and styles in tow.
Not content to raise the curtain (as on previous albums), Muse instead choose to hurtle straight through it via techno-stomper ‘Uprising’, unveiling their full intergalactic intentions (complete with Doctor Who style synth solo) with the political people-power lyrics that pervade much of the album. Hot on its heels comes the title track, harking back to the globally proportioned angst that defined 2004’s Absolution, Matthew Bellamy’s ever stunning vocals floating atop tragic chord suspensions.
New directions are explored further in ‘Undisclosed Desires’, a slick sound created with slap bass, pizzicato strings and rumbling synthesisers, and ‘United States of Eurasia’, an embarrassingly enjoyable combination of piano, strings, some very cheesy chord changes, and sound bites that are about as “Queen” as Freddie Mercury’s tache…
In the wake of the anthemic ‘Guiding Light’, there comes a pair of songs (‘Unnatural Selection’ and MK Ultra’) juxtaposing classic Muse taste in guitar and bass riffs with their new ultra-conspiracy mindset. But it’s Matthew Bellamy’s long-term preoccupation with classical music that ultimately prevails; not only are Chopin and Saint-Saëns quoted within songs, but the final three tracks of the album combine to form the ‘Exogenesis Symphony’. Don’t expect a groundbreaking avant-garde composition, but do look forward to twelve beautiful piano-and-strings orientated minutes.
It all fuses together to give us another Muse record that refuses to rest on the laurels of the past. It truly is an “album”, a journey, and you should listen to the whole thing in one sitting if you want to squeeze every last drop of emotion from the poignant final words: “It’s our last chance to forgive ourselves”.
You must log in to submit a comment.
