Muse have been enjoying their rocket ride to super-stardom for six years and three albums now. Black Holes & Revelations (album number four for those keeping score) pushed a lot of buttons for a lot of people and put the British trio on a lot of people's radars. The Resistance followed three years later but failed to break much new ground. The whole thing felt positively safe which is the last thing that a band like Muse ever want to be accused of, especially given their colorful history. The major problem with The Resistance was the identity crisis it seemed to suffer from. Was it the work of a prog rock band embraced by the mainstream? Were they top 40 musicians babbling about conspiracies for a lark? Were they teen-baiting Twilight proponents that just-so-happened to dabble in classical music? The 2nd Law has an interesting approach to all of these questions: always keep the people guessing.
Rather than reign in all of these
far-flung ideas and tendencies Muse have pushed them further into the
unknown. What would have previously been a song with subtle funk
elements is now a glammed up funk throw-down like 'Panic Station'.
The requisite stadium anthems such as 'Supremacy' and the Olympics'
very own 'Survival' are now planetary in scope. This has allowed the
band to indulge in new concepts that never would have worked for them
five years and a few albums ago. They have chosen to embrace the
identity crisis rather than solve it and in doing so have made pop
music maximalism on a thrilling new scale.
Just when you feel as though the
wide-ranging genre excursions are simply becoming too un-Muse-like
you find songs which effortlessly recall the styles of Origin Of
Symmetry or Black Holes & Revelations. 'Animals'
slides gracefully from jazz picking to roundhouse riffing. Underneath
the futuristic disco facade 'Panic Station' is related to older
rockers like 'Hysteria'. Matthew Bellamy's voice is one of modern
rock's most powerful and impressive instruments. With this is mind I
was pleasantly surprised by the songs that do not feature it. These
are 'Save Me' and 'Liquid State' where bass player Christopher
Wolstenholme takes over on lead vocal duties. This change of pace is
an inspired move and a real star turn for Wolstenholme no longer playing second fiddle to a very bombastic front man. 'Liquid State'
impresses in particular with thrash metal overtones and a grimy
industrial veneer. Not every song delivers as promised but
that is to be expected when so much caution is being thrown to the
wind.
Of particular note is the closing duo
of tracks, both heavily informed by electronic music but they could
not be much more different. The first, 'The 2nd Law:
Unsustainable' is the dubstep track that severely divided fans when
it was first announced. Your enjoyment of it is entirely based on
your enjoyment of dubstep (my personal enjoyment of it is none at
all). Even with the unfamiliar bells and whistles of the genre going
off it is still very much a Muse song at its heart. The second piece
however, 'The 2nd Law: Isolated System' is one of the
album's best and most evocative numbers. It is a moody denouement
that is very much indebted to dance music's ancestry and contains no
live vocals at all; a lament to the end of the world that ends the
album on a well-earned note of contemplation.
The end result is far more dangerous
and tasty than I could ever have expected. Muse have never lacked in
personality so for them to let the freak flag fly even higher,
risking complete alienation, was a crafty gambit. Detractors will
find plenty of ammunition to lampoon the band with, and the fans will
find more audacious sky-shattering rock to drink in.
Rating: A-
Recommended tracks: Animals, Panic Station, Liquid State
