Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Resistance - Muse

One of the things I'm really enjoying at the moment, is discovering that there are a whole slew of really good bands out there that I'd previously incorrectly written off as samey-heavy-rock not worthy of my time.

The first listen to The Resistance was, for me, a revelation. Muse had been ascribed the before-mentioned status and it was really only hearing the single Uprising on the radio that made me consider giving them a listen.

They're brilliant! It's like a modern-day Queen. OK so if darling Freddie were still with us today I doubt he'd be writing exactly this music, but the sound is fairly close. You listen to United States of Eurasia / Collateral Damage and tell me you can't hear the influence there!!

The first four tracks of the album (Uprising, Resistance, Undisclosed Desires and United States of Eurasia / Collateral Damage) are all excellent. Catchy and memorable tunes, upbeat enough for a summer drive, guitar driven with a strong "hell yeah!!" factor. And then at the end of track four there's a classical piano sonata dropped in. Lovely. To my ear it sounded very Chopin. I was, of course, right.

Unfortunately from this point on it's all a little too repetitive. We've heard the sweeping vocals, the Edge-esque guitar work and the tunes begin to morph into one.

That having been said this is a very fun album with plenty of merit. One of the best things about it is that Muse don't take themselves too seriously - they just have fun and make the music they want to make.

Don't make my mistake and assume you know the band. I'm going to be picking up their last album too. They're just too good to ignore really.


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3 1/2 Stars

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