Muse - The 2nd Law.

I don't know if anybody has felt this way, but the last 2 months (September, and the beginning of October) have shown just a lot of new releases in a year where interesting new music has been harder to find than the plot in a Michael Bay movie.    Maybe I've just gotten increasingly jaded with the current music scene and the current musical trends, but I've felt like even the most anticipated, sure-fire albums of this year have been pretty much duds.  

So, how about the new Muse album?  I still swear by the fact that Origin of Symmetry is one of the greatest albums ever released, and is by still and far, remains their best work to date, new album included.   I would not say that it's necessarily fair to judge a new album to a band's older album from its younger, wilder days, but one cannot help but think of such comparisons when listening to The 2nd Law.   This is not because the two albums have anything in common, but rather because they have absolutely nothing in common. 

Inherently this is not a bad thing.  Anathema's Weather Systems, one of the few notable releases of 2012, has nothing in common with the band's first albums back in their gothic/doom metal days (Anathema is a progressive rock band with gothic and indie flourishes for those who have not experienced them), and yet it remains perhaps their most powerful work to date since 2003's A Natural Disaster.  In fact, the ability for a band to move beyond its roots into something new is something that is not inherently bad, even though I strongly disagree with the sentiment that many critics claim; that change is necessary for the sake of change.  Many bands have released some of their best work polishing their sound rather than experimenting into new territory, and the decision to do so is not necessarily a detachment from the band's ability.

The 2nd Law, however, can be summed in its glorious, bombastic, over-the-topic, zenith-clutching glory in a rather strange mix of ennui and flaccid static.   For the simple matter of the point, this album gives us the thing that Muse promised to never do, and we all hoped would never happen.  Despite that the album is full of perhaps what is the most experimental age of the band, they've accomplished something that you would have never expected:  Muse went boring.

For the truth of the matter, aside from the two tracks that feature excellent vocals from bassist Chris, there really is nothing that you have not already heard on previous albums.  (I will talk about why this experiment ends up being by the far the best, and most listenable part of the album later.)   Opening track, Supremacy is basically a b-side from Black Holes and Revelations with a little bit more "cranked to 11" guitars that Muse use (heh!) to try and tell the world that we haven't sold out yet (but we totally have), and end with a rather surprisingly decent track that never soars, but stays stable on the updraft.  It even features the same kind of trumpets that you heard at the end of that same album, and pretty much goes through all the same motions.

And it mostly goes downhill from there.  Madness is a track that you really don't want to like, just because it is infuriatingly catchy, and Panic Station confuses 80s tributes with poor taste.  I guess this song is for those people who actually thought that Supermassive Black Hole was a "good track."   For those of you have not seen a Muse concert, complete with massive lasers and fantastic performances from the band (and let it be known that I will never ever doubt or call into question the talent of the band members), and hearing the difference between the quality of previous songs and tracks that "try" to be something trendy, you'll know what I mean when I state that Panic Station is one of the most infuriating things you'll hear this year.

Survival, the theme for the 2012 olympics, is most notable for being the anthem of the 1 time every 4 years that I pretend to care about swimming, so I don't think I'll bother trying to care about this song.  It's basically Uprising, but without all the fun.

The middle section of the album though, despite the rather hackneyed nature of the first quarter of the album is perhaps the most frustrating part of all.  Every single one of these songs until Big Freeze has absolutely nothing to add to the Muse canon, and have nothing to say other than being "big filler."   You can maybe remember Follow Me as the first of the dubstep experiments on the album, but you'll be hard pressed to remember the melody otherwise.  Animals's most notable feature is that absolutely nothing interesting happens in the song until the very end, and that the choice to blow the interesting riff that Matt plays with random yelling and what I can only imagine to be somebody watching a Manchester U match in a crowded bar.  Explorer's is even worse, with absolutely nothing interesting happening in the song.    Sure it has a piano part, but there is no riff, no hook, and certainly no catch.

Big Freeze succeeds in the sense of being an experiment because it is interesting, and recalls some of the finer moments of Black Holes and Revelations without becoming to bogged down in its own self-importance.    For better or worse, it is not particularly different than the rest of tracks on this album, but at least the chorus rocks.   It has a crunchy sound and everything; and if it weren't for the big album polish that this album was given in the mastering studio, you might even pretend that you want to play that riff on the guitar sometime when you're rocking out in the living room.

Save Me, and Liquid State are the two biggest success of the album, and that is not because the bassist Chris proves himself as a formidable vocalist, but simply because by stepping back from the vocal position, and just being the guitarist, Matt remembers what it means to be in a band.   These songs remind me of Muse, and in some ways hark back to better days in Absolution.  The second of which is a more uptempo rocker, and the first is a more quiet, almost early 90s Radiohead.  (Not to mention that Muse began its existence as a media-herald Radiohead worshiper).  Regardless though, these songs feel like the band is back on Earth, and they've remembered that a hook is more important than trying to throw falsetto into every other sentence.  (And they did that on Origin of Symmetry, and it was good then too!)

The two title tracks then, are perhaps the least interesting part of the album in its entirety.  The first track is notable only for being rock meets dubstep, and I don't even remember what happened in the second track, and I just listened to it.  That's how boring they are.


I love Muse, I really do, and honestly this album falls into the same category as Black Holes and Revelations did.  They finally found themselves on the cusp of fame then, and tried to pull out "all the stops" by bringing everything but the kitchen sink.  However, like on that album, only a few of the songs really fall into the right mark, and the rest are just kind of there to remind you of how good Origin of Symmetry, or heck, even The Resistance were.

6/10