Muse - The Resistance

I wonder if by thinking of the album title, they were resistant to original melodies. OH SNAP! Don’t get me wrong, the album is not bad, but there are some inconsistencies to the follow up to 2006’ Black Holes and Revelation in what you expect from Muse’s 5th studio album. Where most fans would enjoy much of the same, Muse seems to have decided to branch out a little into genres of Christmas’ past. Some good, some not so good. This is clearly shown in the last 3 tracks, but we’ll get there in a moment.

The album begins with the current single "Uprising". Shades of Blondie fill my mind with some classic 80s beats, but it's all good. Followed up by "The Resistance", an equally strong track.

Then we get into the world of the weird with "Undisclosed desires". This is a tough track for me to define. The chorus is catchy, but the melody seems to be too top 40s pop verging on the brink of being cheesy. Do i like it or do i hate it? I dont' know!

"United states of Eurasia" is the reincarnation of Freddy Mercury. This is what it would sound like if Queen and Muse had an illegitmate love child. Then throw in the classical piece "Nocturne" at the end. Shades of the classical theme that pervades this album.

"Guiding light" is a great song, classic Muse. Top notch.

"Unnatural Selection" starts off well, the higher energy that starts the track is great, but 3:25 into the song, it drops off. Muse has decided that this journey down that speedy highway has suddenly been stopped by a sheep crossing. Very slow sheep. I think this journey probably should’ve been a short trip around the block rather than that long trip where we asked our parents “are we there yet?”.

Unfortunately, "I belong to you" follows a similar path where it starts out well, but then I don’t know what happened, but the interlude inbetween was trying to break into music my mom likes! Matt Bellamy actually made me want to strangle myself or watch some grossly melodramatic movie from the 30s and 40s. AWFUL track

"Exogenesis : Symphony part 1,2, and 3" are all these tracks that start off with a somewhat classical arrangement of piano and symphony. Then break off into Muse’s grandiose sound only to finish off back to the symphony . I'm not sure if I’m into that or whether any other Muse fans would be into it. I’ll give them marks for something different. It would probably play well to some type of “show”. You know, when they show up to the Grammy’s to play with a symphony and everyone thinks it’s so novel?

Bands try out different sounds all the time. U2 tried it out, and in my opinion failed miserably (Pop? Ugh). Although to be fair, they took elements that didn’t make me want to bang my head on a wall and incorporated them into later albums. Radiohead flirted with different sounds to a rounding success. Muse has left me confused. They haven’t truly changed the way their sound is, but they haven’t necessarily maintained what we think Muse is all about. I’m all for creativity and we all have to grow from where we start. I’m just not sure that Muse has grown into something that can sustain itself. Perhaps album number 6 will right the ship?