Tag: matt bellamy

Rediscovering Muse

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Say what you like about Muse (and I will be doing just that below), their music is great for a run or a workout. I don’t actually listen to music on my runs anymore – it’s far too dangerous – but if I did, their music would be great for that.
That weird uncatagorisable mix of alt rock, glam rock, pop synth, metal, classical, EDM and even occasional dubstep makes for an often unpredictable – but always energetic – playlist.

Spotify put me onto a remix of their latest single, Compliance:

Echoes of their beautiful love song Endlessly and hints of the theme from Knight Rider. See what I mean about a weird mix of genres?
Still, that got me through a quick 5kms on the static bike. Go whoosh whoosh.

I’ve since been listening to some their other stuff. And it’s been cool to rediscover their sound.

However…

The subject matter of their lyrics does leave me cold. In fact, that was the reason I stopped listening to them in the first place. I just found it hugely annoying to have to hear about Matt Bellamy’s paranoia around the “New World Order” and our alleged reptilian overlords for an hour at at time, broken up into ten 6 minute sections. Think David Icke, but with a decent soundtrack.
Not that he’s not free to believe in that sort of nonsense. Of course he is.
Just like I’m free to switch him off for doing it.

He’s not soft about it either. In Animals, he refers to bloodthirsty capitalists suggesting to them:

Kill yourself, come on.
And do us all a favour.

Searching up that lyric, I’ve now got helpline numbers all over my internet. Great.

In Uprising, he enthuses that:

It’s time the Fat Cats had a heart attack.

Which seems an odd stance, given that each and every record Muse sell pops some more money into the coffers of Warner – one of the three biggest music publishers on the planet. I mean, surely the band could sign to some no-name, independent label, but then would they sell as many records? I guess you could argue that they are just trying to get their message out to as many people as possible. Or you could suggest that they are wildly hypocritical. Will we ever know?

The ticket prices for their tour are difficult to reconcile as well. Some of them beyond £250 for Huddersfield in June. And again, sold through Ticketmaster, who aren’t exactly socialist angels when it comes to doing business.

It’s all a bit of an odd dichotomy.

The pandemic was difficult for a lot of people, but I feel that as an alleged vindication of his ideas on government control, and as an opportunity to create lots more content, it was actually a blessing for Matt. You just need to listen to the track above or look at the lyrics to his anti-lockdown love song/rant, Verona:

Can we kiss with poison on our lips?
Well, I’m not scared

Ooh. You rebel, you.

Can we touch and taste forbidden bliss?
They can’t stop us now, I won’t let you be alone
I am coming for you
Keep us apart, it’s too much to ask
We’re running away
Take off your clothes and take off your mask

Songwriting: 100%
Microbiology: not so good.
And this really just stems from basic Germ Theory (which could actually be the title of their next single).

It leaves me with a quandary. Can I enjoy the music but ignore the often moronic messages that they’re trying to share? Well, yes. For a while, at least. So I’m going to have more high-energy workouts over the next few days or weeks before becoming annoyed again and shutting down Muse for another few months or years.

Muse

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“My goodness,” he thought, the realisation having suddenly dawned upon him. “I haven’t listened to any Muse in ages.”

And this is a bit weird really, because they’re one of those bands nearly all of whose songs I nearly always enjoy. And thus, with wanting to share something from them, the only problem was which one to choose. I had a good time listening through several (or more) of their efforts before plumping for Mercy.

And then I changed my mind and went old-school with Bliss. In which the lead singer takes a bit of a tumble.

We’ll save Mercy for another day. Soon.

Just enough electronica to keep the electronica people happy.
Just enough rock’n’roll to keep the rock’n’roll people happy.
And just enough wind resistance in deep space to irritate the astrophysicists.

All set to the backdrop of Matt Bellamy’s soaring vocals.

Popping a Muse playlist onto my Spotify before heading off to Europe now seems like a very sensible idea.

New Muse Song!

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There’s new stuff from Muse? So why would I blog anything else today?

It’s called Dig Down, and the video is – once again – set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic, digital world full of cyborgs and flickering monitors.

Remember Madness from their last album? Well, this is basically exactly the same song. The trouser-wobbling electronic bass is there, the Queen-esque theatrical guitars and vocals are there, Matt Bellamy’s imploring voice soaring over the lot of it. Not much progression here, to be honest.

Hmm. Jury’s out.

Vintage Muse

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Perhaps because they announced that they will have a new album out this time next year, or perhaps just because Steve Jobs’ spinny touchy wheel thing on my iPod looks really nice but doesn’t actually work every time, I ended up doing an Artists – Muse – All Songs – Random on my way into work this morning.

“I’m going to blog some vintage Muse this morning,” I thought. “People need some vintage Muse today.”
But which song to choose from the 106 that I have on my device?

Muse in Cape Town, 2008

At first, it seemed easy: Unintended was on, and as the orange sun rose over the mountains, that seemed perfect. But then there was suddenly New Born and that was great too. And then Map Of The Problematique, arguably my favourite Muse song, but quite dangerous in an overly-energetic way.

Basically, each song seemed better than the last, which is no bad way for things to be going, but which wasn’t helping with any sort of decision making. So I made a plan: whichever song was playing when I arrived at work would be the one I would share. And that was Falling Away With You.

Sadly, the only version I could find of Falling Away With You was this rather dodgy live piano cover. Complete with a lot of coughing and other audience noise. Ugh.

You deserve better. And so you get this one, with its salutary-message-shock-twist-in-the-tail ending:

According to that link at the top, Matt Bellamy has said that the new album:

…should be something that really does strip away the additional things that we’ve experimented with on the last two albums, which is electronics, symphonics and orchestral work and all that kind of stuff.

That disappoints me a little. Not because I don’t enjoy a bit of vintage Muse (see this post, for example), but because I thought that the last couple of albums were ground-breaking in the way that they dragged in all sorts of drama and showmanship on top of their rocky foundation. It was all so new, so adventurous, so different.

Not everyone liked it. But not everyone likes One Direction and they seem to do ok!!!!

I will, of course, get the new album when it comes out. It will, of course, be brilliant. But it won’t be unique. And that seems like a bit of a step backwards for me.