Muse

For the first time in their over 10 year career, the Teignmouth rockers included some mild ‘dubstep’ in a couple of tracks, which may come as a surprise to some, however it’s no surprise that Matt Bellamy (lead singer and guitarist) and co would want to experiment.

Muse released an album teaser a few months ago which included a fair amount of the track ‘The 2nd Law: Unsustainable’, which in typical Muse fashion is bizarre and like nothing they have tried before. Unsustainable sounds like the perfect song to appear in a film like Dawn of the Dead (or even Shaun of the Dead!) or a film of that nature in which the human race comes under attack! The track containing the most ‘dubstep’ on the album and background noise of a news reporter, Unsustainable is certainly one of the most bizarre songs that Muse has produced.

One song that really catches the ear is probably the simplest and most mellow song of the album and the 2nd single ‘Madness’. Madness is sung very softly by Bellamy with the causal drum beat and backing vocals of ‘mmmmmmm mad’ lingering around. There is a brief instrumental with the guitar which sounds like a calmer extract of the introduction to Guns N Roses hit ‘Sweet Child of Mine’. Despite its simplicity, Madness is a stroke of genius. Only towards the end of the track does Matt Bellamy raise his voice, which ends the 2nd single so perfectly before the song gently winds down.

A lot has been made of the debut single ‘Survival’ which was of course the official London 2012 Olympic song. The name of the song says everything, with it fitting perfectly into a war or army boot camp scenario. The beat is almost entwined with the marching of soldiers or perhaps an extract out of one of the Terminator films! Nevertheless Bellamy’s voice is expiring to a certain extent or situation (war), but maybe not spurring on Olympic athletes!

If you want ingenuity, then listen no further….