The One with the Thoughts of Frans

Today I noticed Muse’s new album is available in “the cirquit”. I do think that whoever misuses trust by leaking stuff like this should be shot, but anyway, on to the album.

The first track, Take a Bow, starts of as a classic Muse song, but then somewhere along the way the electronics kick in. While it starts promising, there is never a sort of climax and the song doesn’t stick to my head like with Apocalypse Please on Absolution.

The second track, Starlight, sounds a bit on the poppy side. The vocals never get truly interesting. Overall an enjoyable song, but no feeling of euphoria just yet.

The third track is Supermassive Black Hole, the first single. You might have heard it already. While I do like it, I noticed that it works far better as background music (to put up loud while doing the last Grand Prix in Burnout 2) than as actual listening to music, if you get what I mean. However I did notice that I put this track up more often.

The fourth track, Map of the Problematique, is different. It does sound a bit poppy, but contrary to the former tracks it doesn’t feel forced on Muse’s generic style. Perhaps I just got more used to it by now? Regardless of that however, it’s possibly the best track on the album. Later on in the track they go even more all out with the electronics and that’s good.

The fifth track, A Soldier’s Poem, is just some kind of intermezzo in a more classic style.

The sixth track, Invincible, doesn’t sound very good at all in my opinion. I suppose it sounds a bit like Absolution, but then… well, less interesting and on top of that not very new of course.

The seventh track, Assassin, was pretty good. It was almost metal-like at times, but the vocals were generic.

The eight track, Exo Politics I liked a lot on first listen. A catchy guitar riff to start off with, getting better and better towards the end. After listening it a few more times my opinion stands, however I now think it starts off fairly boring and repetitive.

The ninth track, City of Delusion, I really like.,It’s something really different and possibly therefore cool, but it just sounds good on all fronts.

The tenth track, Hoodoo, sort of continues the previous track (in feeling only) and therefore even the quite measly 3:42 seem too long for it.

The eleventh and last track of the album, Knights of Cydonia, is very nice and bombastic. The vocals sound Yes-like here, which is definitely not a negative thing.

In conclusion, I think that overall I’m slightly disappointed. But you should realise that when your expectations are high, it’s easy to be disappointed. I certainly welcome the change in style. Perhaps it is a forebode that if Muse decides to go further down this route, they will produce an absolute masterpiece in the future?