Muse, When good bands go bad... Options

[Senghe]

I'll apologise to all rabid Muse fans here and now, but it's Aunty Senghe's knicker knotted harsh but honest ranty time. I'd probably leave the thread now if you are a Muse fan who is likely to take offence or tell me I should listen to the whole album as it's all jolly clever you know and Muse can't be pinned down one genre due to their musical genius blah blah blah. I like to see progression in a band, but prefer it if they stay away from becoming their own tribute band.

What the bloody fuck happened? I remember when Muse used to be a really good band. I like a good 80% of their music on all their previous albums. After seeing them live several years ago and having an emperor's new clothes moment and drifted away, but was interested to see what the new album would bring and if it would live up to what I'd previously like about Muse. But no. I've now heard the first two singles and they are both irredeemably shit cliches both lyrically and musically.

Uprising - who's idea was it to rip the Dr Who theme tune off, mash it with a bit from Billy Idol's White Wedding and then go on to sound vaguely like Marilyn Manson in his glam rock phase. Then to add insult to injury they add the most horrifically, mind numbingly inane lyrical bollocks - it's like the paranoid conspiracy theory delusion of a drunk 14 year old after watching Loose Change. This is reinforced with the video of evil teddy bears and the band riding round on the back of a toy truck. Not a fucking original idea in the whole thing (I swear every little nuance reminds me of songs already done, but so many bits are swirled together there must be about 6 constituent ripped off songs) - and not even put together in a way to make it pleasant enough to like despite itself. Congratulations - I didn't think Muse could surpass the pastiche of Elvis's I can't Help Falling In Love With You on the last album (Soldier's Poem). But the boys have done it! It's just bollocks.

Undisclosed Desires is a bit better. I absolutely love the chorus, but it's let down by the rest of the song. Also it's undoubltedly cheesy and many a Muse fan could hear that song if it had been done by [insert boyband or little emo kids of your choice] and they would say it was musically and lyrically shit. And for fucks sake, they've ripped themselves off and used too many elements of previous Muse songs. It sounds like they've run out of ideas and had a delve around in their back catalogue. As for the video, it just looks like Exit Ten's Warriors video with a shitload more money chucked at it and for all it's plush shiny production, not as good a song.

Judging off those two songs, I don't give a flying fuck about the rest of the album.

This post has been edited by Senghe: Nov 14 2009, 6:37 am

[Merica]

I like Muse as a rule, though am admittedly a very loose casual fan in terms of actual knowledge .What I didn't like was when Black Holes and Revelations came out and suddenly all the people in my year liked it, particularly Knights of Cydonia. I didn't like this because they seemingly knew nothing of the stuff that had come before, like Plug in Baby and Time is Running Out. Better songs, in my opinion.