After much skepticism following the band’s official Olympic track ‘Survival’ and a very different teaser in the form of ‘Unsustainable’, it was a worry whether Muse could pull off a decent sixth album. Would it successfully please the fanatic followers Muse seem to have? Being a class- A ‘Muser’ myself, the terror of another mediocre album following 2009’s The Resistance would be too much to comprehend. With the latest single ‘Madness’ turning heads in opposite directions, it seemed all might be lost. However, The 2nd Law is nothing short of a fantastically pleasant surprise! It is different, but in no way negatively.
The opener, ‘Supremacy’ sees the band digging straight back into Origin of Symmetry territory, with a dirty riff that would bring Nick Oliveri to his knees. The album version of ‘Madness’ sees a cool mix of soft-rock and dub-step, making the track more euphoric than tedious, especially when the radio edit cuts some of Matt Bellamy’s purer vocals . Then comes the insane funk-rock Queen meets David Bowie ‘Panic Station’ that not even the hardest of Muse fans could expect. It’s pulsating, full of flavour and hilarious, however could be criticised as coming too close to ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ (although this reviewer isn’t complaining!).
Perhaps what is most significant, the tone of the album changes to lullaby of sorts, which is most poignant in ‘Explorers’. The track, to put it bluntly is beautiful, however keeps in tune with Bellamy’s proclamation of the apocalypse, “free me, I’ll free you from this world, we don’t belong here.”
The effervescent beauty is continued into ‘Prelude’; a triumphant symphonic masterpiece that precedes the dreaded ‘Survival’. Things get to a whole new level of diverse when two of the later tracks throw some light on bassist, Chris Wolstenholme’s, vocal ability. They pull it off, however it just feels unnecessary, when Bellamy’s vocal has been the key to Muse’s fame in ways. He stated earlier this year, the album was going to be “Christian gangsta-rap jazz odyssey, with some ambient rebellious dub-step and face-melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia”. And that’s (almost) exactly what it became.
Label: Mushroom
8/10
Words: Katerina Lee
Album out now!