This might end up being a little long winded so try and bear with me.
Muse are a band who can completely bypass my critical faculties and despite my general dislike for Matt Bellamy (the guitarist/pianist/vocalist of the group) and the general hollowness of their songs I can't help but really like the music they make. They're a band who straddle the line between rock and pop quite expertly, but this seems to be an almost accidental occurrence. Bellamy himself seems determined to make the band a bastion of real alternative rock music and yet manages to make radio friendly rock songs despite himself. As a band to dance to, our to see live, or to use as backing in trailers Muse are flawless because they're very technically proficent and have the ability to create some killer hooks. As disposable fun entertainment they're great, but they take themselves far too seriously and if you try and appreciate them on the level that Bellamy seems to want to be appreciated on then you're going to find yourself flummoxed by the sheer inanity of the lyrics.
In terms of making a well structured, well organised racket, the band are probably second to none in England. In fact I'd probably say that they're Britain's premiere mainstream rockband at the moment (if you consider that Oasis have been winding down for the last five years, Radiohead have abandoned the mainstream, the Arctic Monkeys sort of imploded in on themselves, and most other British rockbands are finding themselves maligned by the consistent shifts in genres going on in British music). But at their heart they're a band designed to score trailers. Songs like Showbiz, New Born, Hysteria, Stockholm Syndrome, Map of the Problematique are all muscular sounding slices of music that contain vapid meanings but are easily transposable to pretty much anything. They're songs devoid of context and as such all you have is the well written hooks and great guitar/bass/drum and key work.
If anything Muse brings to mind Clapton's Cream from the 70s, where you had a bunch of musicians playing to prove their musicianship more than anything else. As a live act Muse are phenomenal because they're all exceptional technicians with their respective instruments and despite Bellamy's seeming apathy towards the audience they're very good at working their crowds.
It's a shame because whenever you see Bellamy interviewed you can tell that he aspires to have something to say but understands that his music is ultimately hollow. You can almost get a sense of his dislike for his traditional audience in certain songs on Black Holes and Revelations, his sneery falsetto on Supermassive Black Hole and the sheer lunacy of Knights of Cydonia seem to be Bellamy criticising his public image and conforming to it, and I think part of the reason that the album wasn't received as warmly as OoS or Absolution is that it was so obviously self concious. I still like a great deal of the bands work, I just have to divorce myself from my own perception of the bands goals.
So what do you guys think about Muse, or isn't there much to think about?
Muse are a band who can completely bypass my critical faculties and despite my general dislike for Matt Bellamy (the guitarist/pianist/vocalist of the group) and the general hollowness of their songs I can't help but really like the music they make. They're a band who straddle the line between rock and pop quite expertly, but this seems to be an almost accidental occurrence. Bellamy himself seems determined to make the band a bastion of real alternative rock music and yet manages to make radio friendly rock songs despite himself. As a band to dance to, our to see live, or to use as backing in trailers Muse are flawless because they're very technically proficent and have the ability to create some killer hooks. As disposable fun entertainment they're great, but they take themselves far too seriously and if you try and appreciate them on the level that Bellamy seems to want to be appreciated on then you're going to find yourself flummoxed by the sheer inanity of the lyrics.
In terms of making a well structured, well organised racket, the band are probably second to none in England. In fact I'd probably say that they're Britain's premiere mainstream rockband at the moment (if you consider that Oasis have been winding down for the last five years, Radiohead have abandoned the mainstream, the Arctic Monkeys sort of imploded in on themselves, and most other British rockbands are finding themselves maligned by the consistent shifts in genres going on in British music). But at their heart they're a band designed to score trailers. Songs like Showbiz, New Born, Hysteria, Stockholm Syndrome, Map of the Problematique are all muscular sounding slices of music that contain vapid meanings but are easily transposable to pretty much anything. They're songs devoid of context and as such all you have is the well written hooks and great guitar/bass/drum and key work.
If anything Muse brings to mind Clapton's Cream from the 70s, where you had a bunch of musicians playing to prove their musicianship more than anything else. As a live act Muse are phenomenal because they're all exceptional technicians with their respective instruments and despite Bellamy's seeming apathy towards the audience they're very good at working their crowds.
It's a shame because whenever you see Bellamy interviewed you can tell that he aspires to have something to say but understands that his music is ultimately hollow. You can almost get a sense of his dislike for his traditional audience in certain songs on Black Holes and Revelations, his sneery falsetto on Supermassive Black Hole and the sheer lunacy of Knights of Cydonia seem to be Bellamy criticising his public image and conforming to it, and I think part of the reason that the album wasn't received as warmly as OoS or Absolution is that it was so obviously self concious. I still like a great deal of the bands work, I just have to divorce myself from my own perception of the bands goals.
So what do you guys think about Muse, or isn't there much to think about?
