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The final three tracks limp on, but are not too memorable and it becomes quite clear that Muse could have done with more time to create a better work, or perhaps should have released an EP to trim off the filler. When the rest of the album has an 80s retro styling it already feels hopelessly out of place, but the vacuous lyrics, "Get up and fight, I can't handle this without you, can't do this without you," took me from wondering positively about their thought process for the album, to asking what on Earth they were thinking. Thought Contagion nearly brings it back, but the eighth track, Get Up and Fight is a bewildering mix of cheezy synth-pop and early 2000s nu metal/emo that should really have stayed in that era. Muse have never been afraid to show off their quintessential weirdness. Something Human is the exact kind of pretentious self-help pop ballad nonsense that turned a lot of people off Muse over their last few albums.
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Unfortunately, the album takes a bit of a nosedive from this point onwards. The sparse production of Showbiz (1999), the heavy guitar sound of Origin of Symmetry (2001), the over-the-top vocal harmonies found on Black Holes and Revelations (2007) and the aforementioned operatic Queen-esque sound first heard on the Resistance (2006) all come together fantastically here. This song encapsulates the band's journey, as you can hear elements from almost every album present in these four minutes. A punky atonal guitar riff takes us into an almost operatic arrangement of Middle Eastern melodies and harmonies that would have made Freddie Mercury pay attention. The fifth track is the highlight of the album. Propaganda is the pick of the bunch, showing us the wacky sound of the band with vocoders giving way to acoustic slide guitar and Bellamy doing his best Prince impression. The song goes through periods of metal and electro-pop and therefore the track could have sat well on Absolution, but its more polished and confident production makes it fit here too.
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Pressure feels like an instant classic, starting with Bellamy's audacious guitar tone alongside a brass marching band. The Dark Side contrasts a sanitised synth-heavy electro-pop styling with the deeper feelings of alienation that the band express so well. The album starts off strongly with the Jean-Michel Jarre influenced Algorithm which lets the retro-electro stylings that permeate the record grow before Matt Bellamy's vocals arrive to take us into the heart of the album.įollowing this are three single-worthy tracks that show the best of Muse's ability to blend their unique experimental rock style with a more catchy pop-friendly angle. Similarly with Muse, in Simulation Theory there are glimpses of the unique creative stylings that went into Origin of Symmetry (2001) and Absolution (2003). Last year's Split saw a moderate return to form for Shyamalan with audiences and critics able to see elements of the genius that gave us the Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000). Their first few efforts were amazing and then their work descended into derivative nonsense. I've often said being a fan of Muse is like being a fan of M Night Shyamalan.