Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Jelly Fish
Hello people of the FANiverse. My name is Kyle Pope and I am the newest addition to the Freakin Awesome Network and I gotta say, I am pretty freakin excited. Welcome to the Vatican Gift Shop! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @popopal00za.
Now, as sure as I am that you are interested to know all about this wonderful individual who is about to spend his time once or twice a week spewing his often-cynical rants across the interwebs, there’s only a few things you really need to know about me. I am a whiskey loving, unapologetic ass who loves to spread his self-appointed authoritative views on pop culture, especially music.
But enough about my cocky ass, let’s take a look at this shall we.
Muse. Their hardcore fans are crazy! Believe me I know. I used to be one of them. To some, the very mention of Muse causes fan girls to get weak in the knees and dudes to attempt to look badass while doing air piano to “Butterflies and Hurricanes.”
"Butterflies and Hurricanes:" the official song of 2012 Special Olympics.
Or maybe it was just me doing the air piano. In my blind and youthful days I drooled over the very mention of Muse just like everyone else. I say love because you either loved them or didn’t know who they fuck they were. That was up until 2009’s “The Resistance” came out and their most musically diverse song “Uprising” came out (that was supposed to be sarcastic, but its hard to make that clear over a blog, you know. I didn’t want people to read this and think I was serious being all like “WTF Kyle that song just goes Dun-na-na na-na na-na na-na over and over again for 5 minutes” I know guys. I know).
Supermassive Black Hole YO! I dunno I thought it was funny!
Seriously though, I was crushing on Muse pretty hard and I am a fool for no one, but Muse I was a fool for you.
“The 2nd Law,” the sixth album to grace Muse’s sometimes overly praised, but impressive none the less discography has been described as nothing we have ever heard from the likes of Muse. Unfortunately, some of it we have heard from the likes of Skrillex.
Matt Bellamy, crazy shrieking demon singer dude and fan proclaimed God, in truth is just a guy who sings like Thom Yorke, plays like Tom Morello, and has an unhealthy obsession with classical music and Queen (which often go hand in hand). He has been the creative force behind the band and has been doing a pretty decent job of it up until now.
This album isn’t all dub-step at all and certainly isn’t the only problem the album holds, but since it was inspired by Skrillex I have to address that issue and have to ask a question that I’m sure is on a lot of people’s musically educated minds. If they had to bring the dub-step influence into their music, why would they use Skrillex as a reference? Didn’t they realize that he did almost half an album with KoRn? Didn’t they hear about that? I did! Why not Bassnectar? Or better yet, why not draw from home where most of dub-step started and look into guys like Caspa, Rusko, and Benga.
Another question, why the serious tone? In the two part dub-step extravaganza “2nd Law: Unsustainable” and “2nd Law: Isolated System” it features a political message based on the idea of a civilization based on constant growth cannot work. Which is fine and all. A little Rage Against the Machine ideology could do us all some good.
We dub-step for justice broski!
However I don’t envision dub-step fans marching the streets with signs and promoting agendas of peace. I do, though, see them with signs of intoxication and political agendas of incorrectness.
Even the rest of the album that does doesn’t feature some form of dubstep has a hard time redeeming itself.
The first song “Supremacy” opens with a guitar riff that sounds like a cut and paste straight from Rage Against The Machine’s “Know Your Enemy” while Bellamy shouts accusative words against some unknown higher power. The third single from the album, “Panic Channel” sounds like it was intentionally supposed be some deranged mash-up of Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot” and Prince’s “Cream.” Lead single and official song for the 2012 Olympic Games “Survival” is a lyrical locker room pre-game pep talk to 3rd graders put to music, complemented by ego driven guitar wanking, and my first piano lesson when I was 11.
This album is not without its saving grace and it comes from a very unexpected place. For the first time, bass player Chris Wolstenholme puts his contribution to the song writing process with his two songs “Save Me” and “Liquid State.” While both songs reflect his experience while combating with his alcoholism, “Save Me” provides an emotionally warm ode to his wife for helping him and dealing with him at his worst. The song has has a majestically large sound with towering layers of synthesizer and bass that provides both an intelligent rhythmic and lead roll in the song. “Liquid State” starts with a punk distorted bass that once again provides the lead and a steady rhythmic motion which then explodes into this widely ranged extraterrestrial sound that puts a new twist onto Muse’s trademark outer space-like music.
However, despite the stroke of genius provided by the recovering alcoholic this album falls under bust when it comes to its overall worthwhile listening pleasure. Muse can may get a pass from their other fans, but this recovering Muse-a-holic sees through the lies and despite what the band and fans say I will bury this, I will smother this and I will murder this. Ha, see what I did there!
4/10
Before 2nd Law...
After 2nd Law....