Tag: Muse

Listened Muse | Will of the People from Muse | Will of the People

Enter the Muse Will of the People Experience

The Will of the People is a return to the tried and trusted sounds. As they have explained in interviews:

It’s a montage of the best of Muse. It’s a new take on all of those types of genres that we’ve touched on in the past.

However, this reference to the past comes across as somewhat problematic at times. As Paolo Ragusa touches on:

The fact that our global political crisis has given Muse’s audience more context for a dystopian record means that the band needs to be very careful about how it addresses these woes, the way it poses solutions, the specific problems that Bellamy is choosing to investigate. And unfortunately, Will of the People is — perhaps on purpose — not very careful about such things.

Whereas Arcade Fire’s return to the past seems somewhat comforting, I am not exactly sure how I feel about Will of the People.

Place between Queen and Rage Against the Machine.

Bookmarked Free Resources on MUSE During COVID-19 (about.muse.jhu.edu)

In response to the challenges created by the global public health crisis of COVID-19, Project MUSE is pleased to support its participating publishers in making scholarly content temporarily available for free on our platform. With many higher education institutions moving into an exclusively online learning environment for the foreseeable future, we hope that easy access to vetted research in the humanities and social sciences, from a variety of distinguished university presses, societies, and related not-for-profit publishers, will help to support teaching, learning, and knowledge discovery for users worldwide.

In response to the current crisis, Project Muse are providing free access to a range of publishers for a limited time. A list of the books can be found here, while a list of journals can be here.

via Public Books

Listened Review: Muse Get Lost in the Eighties on ‘Simulation Theory’ from Rolling Stone

There are some pretty creative uses of their electronic obsessions, however, and that’s reliably becoming one of Muse’s more interesting moves. Though maybe too close to at least two different George Michael songs, “Dig Down,” has a very cool, wubbing, minimal feel and a bravado mix of poptronic pulse and theatrical bombast. And despite its completely ridiculous lyrics and Rush “Roll the Bones” rap vocal effects, “Propaganda” is a excellently weird song: think Prince getting a Swizz Beatz makeover with a steel guitar solo. Basically, where Muse, one of our last huge rock bands, is at their best and smartest is when they’re not being a rock band at all.

I love the idea of Muse taking on the eighties, but something just does not seem to click. It is interesting that they engaged with the likes of Timbaland, but musically and thematically it is a little confusing. I think Christopher Weingarten captures this best:

Most of Simulation Theory could be about our surveillance state and/or a relationship. The blurring results in clunkiness.

I am sure that live it would be a stadium spectacular, as it has many of the usual licks and baselines, but as an album it was short of what I hoped for.

On the flipside, I was really intrigued by the ‘alternative reality’ versions of a few of the songs. Along with Snow Patrol, Kimbra and St. Vincent, this seems to be becoming something of a trend? I wonder if this is a part of the move to digital consumption, therefore providing more opportunities for different takes?