I've always fancied doing one of those live reaction pieces but I've never got round to it. The new Muse record seems as good a place as any to start, given the amount of reaction flying around to it.
1 - Uprising - Well this is okay in a Not-that-Musey-but-still-pompous-as-fuck kind of way. Not keen on those high pitch 'Come on'! bits. This isn't a Corsa ad lads.
2 - Resistance - God, Bellamy's lyrics are terrible sometimes. This sounds a bit like something off the terrible last Cooper Temple Clause record. Catchy, but deep down you know it's not very good.
3 - Undisclosed Desires - What's this plinky-plonky faux-Timbaland backing going on? Maybe I'm being harsh, but this ain't going well.
4 - United States of Eurasia- Ah, here comes that Queen song. I seem to really be warming to this. Totally overblown of course, but wonderfully so. Everything that I love about Muse. What a fantastic pianist Bellamy is too.
5- Guiding Light - Lovely throbby bass. This is definitely that moment on a Muse album which I don't particularly like at first because it's a bit overbearing but grow to love in the end. See Endlessly, Showbiz and Micro Cuts for further examples.
6 - Unnatural Selection - Ooh, nice funereal organ. This could end up being good. Oh God, that guitar's a bit hyper-Kaiser Chiefs at first though. Before it becomes like the New Born solo, that is. Confusing stuff. All told, a bit throwaway in the end, a la The Small Print. It gets better towards the end with that racing guitar bit. I bet this would be a bitch to play on Guitar Hero.
7 - MK Ultra - Nice guitar line, this. The ooooh, ooooh bits are good. This is about the closest thing I've heard to anything on Absolution on here so far. Pretty good actually. This might end up being one of my favourites. There's no need to write a song about Milton Keynes though, no matter how zany you are.
8 - I Belong to You - Christ, is this the intro from a Stevie Wonder b-side? I'm not keen on this cod-funk thing they seem to have discovered. The only bit with any kind of merit in this is that mournful piano in the middle. It all just feels like it's building up to a point it never really ever gets to. A bit like the album as a whole, actually. And is that a fucking clarinet solo?! Lads, you're too geeky to be funny, so leave it at the door.
9 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 - I'm excited about this symphony piece. It's almost as though this is where they stop pissing about and start the album properly. This part is stunning, especially the first couple of minutes before the vocals. Really brooding and ominous.
10 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 - Nice classic piano again and that melancholic, low key vocal he hasn't done nearly enough of on this album. These last couple of tracks might be saving the album. I was worried that the guitar which comes in about two minutes in would make it all a bit tacky, but it actually fits in quite nicely with those gorgeous searing strings.
11 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 - This piano and strings intro might be the most beautiful piece of music Muse have done yet. In fact, fuck it, it's not just the intro, it's the whole piece. It just swells and swells. I'm so conflicted. Is this really the same album as I Belong to You? What a great way to end an album.
So all told, The Resistance is a fucking strange experience. It houses some absolutely unbearable moments, mainly the attempts at eclecticism. I'm all for experimentation, but you'd think that after five albums someone as gifted as Matt (as well as Dom and Chris) would know what they can and can't get away with. The three-part symphony at the end salvages something, saving the album from being a total disaster, but it's a hard record to love.
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