Muse & The 2nd Law

You know what's mind blowing? MUSE! Their 6th studio album entitled The 2nd Law was released this September and I can't imagine anyone being left cold when listening to it. Some Muse fans expected more, I expected less since The Resistance wasn't really my cup of tea (compared to the masterpieces Origin of Symmetry and Absolution).

When Survival first hit the radio stations I was all like ''whoa, that's so Queenish, but interesting''. Empowering and majestic, just as Olympics hymn should sound like.  Then there was Madness, o sweet and trippy Madness, a dub step driven, dense in electronics and hard beat. I really needed some time to embrace this song fully, but when it got under my skin, there was no way I could get that song out of my mind. So, what's up with The 2^nd Law? It's different, it's experimental, it's versatile, a new step in Muse's evolution. I myself am the greatest fan of Origin of Symmetry (alone I guess, since Absolution seems to be their most praised album) and what got me into Muse at the first place is their experimental, alternative sound. Just listen to Hypermusic and say it doesn't take you to the higher level. It's like being on really, really cool drugs. So okay, The 2^nd Law, a bit more electronic, less piano and very Queen-like in guitar riffs. We have straight rock hymns, such as (the James Bond sounding) Supremacy, 80s ‘’I feel Duran Duran/Frankie Goes to Hollywood/Prince driven, party song Panic Station, the ‘’Foo Fighters are kickass’’ sounding Liquid State , the ‘’WTF I could be an intro song for a mega awesome sci-fi movie Unsustainable, the heartbreaking ballad Explorers, funky Big Freeze, the introspective Animals…. And so on. Every song on this album is a chapter to itself, o story for itself. How it works as a whole? Quite well I may say. There is no pure concept on this album and you know what, it's about time. I'm quite sick and tired of band either going into new direction or doing it badly or constantly standing on solid grounds of their representative sound. Give me rock and dub step and 80s new romantics, hard guitars and high pitched vocals and do it good! That's what The 2^nd Law is all about.

Going on, having the privilege of seeing Muse live was one of rare moments I had tears in my eyes. I love going to cheap, metal concerts, but no underground band can even compare to the professionalism of such artists as Muse. Being the tour promoting the new album it was of course expected the majority of songs will be the newer, but we got our share of epic songs such as Bliss, Time Is Running Out, Starlight, Stockholm Syndrome, anyway, those good, old songs that made us fall in love with this band in the first place. They went on for 2 solid hours, with 2 encores and I admit I was dehydrated, my arms hurt, I could barely even speak and I could last for at least 2 hours more. I missed Hysteria and Hypermusic though, Hysteria being the perfect ‘’get crazy’’ song and Hypermusic being one of my top 3 Muse songs. The ending with Knights of Cydonia was simply breath taking.

So all in all, I have spent the last month listening to solely Muse and after seeing them live I love this band even more. Alternative rock is not one of my favourite genres and I try out different bands from time to time, but none of them seems to amaze me as much as Muse did. So I’m really hoping I will have a chance to see them again near in the future, because it's such an amazing adventure, I can't miss it.