With its relentless buzzsaw guitar, two-note bass riff, cheesy synthesizer figure, and mountains of handclaps and backing vocals, \u201cUprising\u201d is one of the great rock songs of the last decade. It embodied everything great about what Muse had been and pointed the way to where they were headed. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the sort of fist-pumping, crowd-singing arena-ready anthem that rock music effortlessly pulls off when a bit of ego is attached, and knowing this, Matt Bellamy writes lyrics vague enough that they can apply to anybody. \u201cThey will not control us \/ We will be victorious\u201d he seethes, and he could be talking about people vs. corporations, proles vs. the government, outcasts vs. straight society, fans vs. the music industry, you name it. But Bellamy believes it \u2013 or seems to \u2013 and it\u2019s hard not to crank up the radio and shout along with him against whoever your oppressor is.<\/p>\n
\u201cUprising\u201d ends up the opening salvo of Muse\u2019s fifth album, which ends up being their most audacious and overblown disc yet. While each previous album had hinted at this direction, the disc pulls out all the stops across its 54 minutes and 11 songs; sci-fi-inspired lyrics, a three-part rock symphony with an overture, loads of echo and overdubs, hard rock interspersed with classical music without a second thought. It builds on the lofty ambitions and sounds of prime U2, Queen (an oft-cited reference with this trio) and even classic prog-rock, though it\u2019s nowhere near as ego-driven or meandering.<\/p>\n
That coherent focus is essential to making this disc work, even if the focus on sound and fury can sometimes obscure memorable hooks. \u201cResistance\u201d smartly segues its on-edge verses into a vocal tic pre-chorus and then an explosive actual chorus. Bellamy\u2019s voice covers octaves and runs rings around itself, like Radiohead but balls out and unapologetic. \u201cUndisclosed Desires\u201d tries to mesh a hip-hop beat with an indie electronic rock song; it\u2019s not that great, but it shows depth and ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnited States Of Eurasia,\u201d meanwhile, is the most gonzo moment here, shamelessly borrowing from Queen\u2019s \u201cWe Are The Champions\u201d then adding a vaguely Indian string section after the choruses while instruments zoom around. Bellamy then stops midsong to tinkle out a pleasant piano section (subtitled \u201cCollateral Damage\u201d), the calm after the storm, and though abrupt, it\u2019s quite lovely and allows for a moment of breath. It then sets the stage for the strident \u201cGuiding Light,\u201d heroic \u201880s guitar solo and all, all rock god posturing but lots of fun. Frankly, with the serious nature of so much indie, mainstream, and alternative rock, it\u2019s good to see some dudes having fun and reaching for the stars.<\/p>\n
To be fair, this grandiosity is why some misguided people didn\u2019t like U2 in their day, or Queen, or Muse; three guys in a garage bashing out raw two-minute songs is real rock, not this sort of pomp and theatrics. So if you didn\u2019t like Muse before, you definitely won\u2019t now. But for most others, this disc will be a hoot. Plus, no matter who you are, \u201cUprising\u201d and \u201cUnnatural Selection\u201d will be highlights of your playlist if they aren\u2019t already; the latter is definitely, defiantly old-school Muse, but with a staccato rhythm not unlike those on Queens Of The Stone Age\u2019s Songs For The Deaf <\/i>as interpreted by Brian May. It\u2019s a rush, man, and at that point you\u2019re only halfway through the disc.<\/p>\n
\u201cMK Ultra\u201d just treads water but \u201cI Belong To You\u201d is fun and faintly ridiculous, sort of like Bowie\u2019s \u201cChanges\u201d riff married to a Maroon 5 song if Maroon 5 was a lot cooler than they actually are. The song unfortunately stops dead in the middle for a ballad sung in French, and though it returns to the main riff it doesn\u2019t recapture the momentum. The three-part \u201cExogenesis\u201d suite is something that Bellamy evidently had in his head for some time, and damned if the trio doesn\u2019t pull it off beautifully, switching from gorgeous classical passages to huge guitar riffs to appropriately soaring vocals. It won\u2019t be anybody\u2019s favorite Muse song, but it\u2019s not designed to be a hit (like \u201cUprising\u201d is); it\u2019s designed to be a showstopping finale that pulls out all the stops. Less charitable listeners might call it Muse Goes Broadway (especially during the piano-led second movement), but most will be reminded of Queen\u2019s more bombastic moments, and all will be heartbroken during Bellamy\u2019s lovely playing on the \u201cRedemption\u201d section that comprises the third movement.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Yes, Muse has earned comparisons to other great bands before it, but those bands operated in different decades, and Muse is doing their thing here and now when few other bands are. The Resistance <\/i>is their best album to date, a flawed but compelling art-rock wonder of a hard rock album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7763],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44863","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-muse","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44863"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44863"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}