Muse is one of the biggest bands in the world today. They're also kind of a joke. A light joke. A ribbing. For a long time, I identified firmly as a Muse fan, then allowed myself to shed that label and to fade, but I was only kidding myself. I was a little embarrassed because this wonderful, innovative, wildly popular band is, in and of itself, excruciatingly embarrassing most of the time.
And that's why I'm here to teach you how to roll with the punches and admit you fucking love Muse. How can you not? They are, for the most part, inoffensive and pleasant young men who make good songs. They might not be "cool" or "indie" or "very good at all some of the time," but they're one of the best bands out there.
Muse... That band from Twilight?
Look, when you're a British brand trying to break into America and a multi-million-dollar franchise asks to clear your music, you say yes.
I remember that one kind of sexy pop-rock song, and the one that sounds like an apocalyptic soccer chant.
Oh yeah, you mean "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Uprising." Those got a lot of radio play.
Those are pretty good, I guess, even if the lyrics are super lame.
Herein lies the secret to Getting the Fuck Over It and Loving Muse™. They are as talented as they are embarrassing. The music fucking rules, but don't look for anything deeper in the songs than basic emotional beats and a general political despair. It's dad rock, but also dads don't like it. Embracing the weird twilight zone Muse operates in, bouncing between both "holy shit" and sometimes just plain "shit," is essential to the overall experience.
Gotta say, it kind of sounds like you hate this band.
I roast because I love. Muse has pulled off some of the greatest mainstream music of the 21st century, and is one of the last great live acts. They also do shit like this, and you just gotta roll your eyes.
How many times have you seen Muse live?
Classified.
So they're good but not good? I know plenty of bands who are just good. Why the fuck should I care?
This is a stadium-rock act made up of three weirdos fronted by a completely harmless conspiracy theorist who believes in aliens and can manipulate a guitar into producing sounds and effects like nothing you've heard before.
Okay, and who's this guy?
I'm talking about one Matt Bellamy, a skinny dude from Devon, England, with a booming voice, a booming-er laugh, and a glass-shattering falsetto. He's the frontman of the band, responsible for the guitar and lead vocals and piano. (Boy, does he rock the piano.) Elsewhere, Dom Howard is on drums, and Chris Wolstenholme is on bass.
Cool name.
Cool name.
Lot of noise for just three guys.
Lot of noise.
So what makes Muse different from other mega-bands like U2 or The Killers?
I'm hesitant to use the word edgy, but they certainly don't have as clean a history, or path to success. The Muse legacy is littered with fucking up and fucking around. From the now-legendary video of Dom making fun of Slipknot so hard that Matt nearly threw up from laughing:
To Muse's persistent penchant for fucking with any TV show host who dares ask them to lip-sync:
Unlike a lot of huge global acts, Muse grew into its hyper-popular current form slowly but steadily. Their first three albums, Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry, and Absolution, built them a devoted fanbase and some modest hits. You most certainly know songs like "Time Is Running Out" and "Hysteria" from Absolution, even if you think you don't. Somewhere around 2006–2007, after the release of their album Black Holes and Revelations, things kicked up a notch and they were catapulted into A-list-band territory. Muse had bona fide, lab-grown hits like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Starlight," and a certified prestige spaghetti Western banger in "Knights of Cydonia." In July 2007, eight years after they first debuted with Showbiz, they sold out London's new Wembley Stadium, becoming the first band ever to do so.
And it's been smooth sailing from there.
Hmm. Yes and no. They're a global name now, and The Resistance, their 2009 follow-up to Black Holes and Revelations, had some good shit. But there were cracks beginning to show in the schtick. "Uprising" was a hit, but there were some duds, too, like "I Belong to You," a humiliating song that features such indignities as a clarinet solo, Bellamy singing in French, and the cheeky inclusion of the word "muse" as a very prominent lyric. See for yourself:
It didn't get any better from there. The less said about 2012's The 2nd Law, the better. Muse went full experimentation, which meant no small amount of time wasted pedaling C-minus EDM-inspired songs and some meandering soft-rock nonsense penned by Wolstenholme. "Panic Station" slaps, though.
So they got bad?
No, just big, and maybe a little cocky. They reined it in with Drones, their most unambitious, rock-centric album since Absolution, centered around the concept of, you guessed it, drones and government paranoia. It's heavy-handed stuff, as ever, but there are some Muse canon classics in there like "Psycho," "Revolt," and "Defector." (Man, "Defector" rules.) It's looking up from here, too. A new album's on the way, and the presumed lead single, "Thought Contagion," is some good-ass alternative rock.
All right, all right, I give up. I'll check out some stuff if you just shut up already. Where do I start?
That depends! Muse has covered most genres, most moods, so effectively that any one starting point for any one person can't be prescribed. So in lieu of that, here are three different sample menus.
To kick things off, Muse's earliest perfect work comes in Origin. You can barely go wrong. "New Born" is an all-timer, "Plug In Baby" has one of the most insane guitar riffs you'll ever hear, and "Hyper Music" answers the question What if an early-2000s emo song were good?
On Absolution, you'll want to hit up "Time Is Running Out," "Sing for Absolution," "Hysteria," and maybe even "Butterflies and Hurricanes." That last one has a classical piano solo shoved into the middle that works somehow. From Black Holes and The Resistance, there's "Supermassive Black Hole," "Starlight," and "Uprising". I know it's a lot, so I made you a playlist.
I hear ya. "Muscle Museum" and the title track from Showbiz demonstrate Muse's early proclivity for a loud, fun time. "Citizen Erased" was never released as a single, and clocks in at over seven minutes long, but many a hardcore Muse fan will tell you it's their best song ever. Also vying for that title is "Stockholm Syndrome," my personal favorite. You won't find "Dead Star" on a studio album, but you'll find it in your head for the next fifteen days. Here's a playlist of the noise ones.
No one does weird quite like Muse. "Micro Cuts" is an operatic nightmare with what I can simply describe as an alarming falsetto. "Knights of Cydonia" is their magnum opus that covers everything from space-inspired hard rock to Western-movie riffs. The "Exogenesis Trilogy" is three songs that close out The Resistance that play like a full-on symphony. Muse dared end their fifth album with three distinct songs that departed fully from their usual style. A baller move. All the coolest and weirdest Muse songs can be found here.
Thanks. I will not listen to these.
There's so much more, too. Do you have time to talk about their B-side album, * Hullabaloo *, or Muse's history with absolutely outstanding Japanese bonus tracks that deserved a wider audience?
That sounds really cool, but I'm running late for something.
What is it?
Just, like, a thing.
Are you sure, there's—
Goodbye!
