Muse - v. Will of the People (rel Aug 26, 2022)

[The King in Crimson]

Just listened to this for the first time and honestly, I really liked it.  The middle drags a little, but I get the feeling it'll get better on subsequent listens.

Favorites: Supremacy, Panic Station, Survival, Animals, Liquid State

Isolated System is a weak ass closer though.

[KevShmev]

More thoughts:

-Isolated System is a very cool tune, but I think it would have been better served in the middle of the album rather than being the closer.  On its own, though, it is really good.

-Liquid State sounds like a Foo Fighters song.

[antigoon]

I think Madness is one of their best songs and that the rest of the album is pretty terrible.

[Dark Castle]

I think Madness is one of their best songs and that the rest of the album is pretty terrible.

The latter part of that sentence is quite unfortunate.  This album has a fire, it's burning with greatness.  IMO.

[robwebster]

More thoughts:

-Isolated System is a very cool tune, but I think it would have been better served in the middle of the album rather than being the closer.  On its own, though, it is really good.

-Liquid State sounds like a Foo Fighters song.

With you on both of those! I'd amend "like a Foo Fighers song" to "Foo Fighterry" for myself - there's a definite aura, especially with Chris' voice, but I wouldn't say it's as canny as that - but yeah, good observations. I do think Isolated System is a very strange closer. Like someone said up-thread, the album doesn't quite have a climax. I wonder if it'd have been better to put it away from Unsustainable, too.

I might try rejigging the album at some point. It's very weird that Big Freeze is the last song where Matt sings a single word - pretty sure Katie Razzall is the voice of the robot. Right now, I'm thinking along the lines of...

1. Unsustainable
2. Madness
3. Panic Station
4. Follow Me
5. Animals
6. Save Me
7. Liquid State
8. Big Freeze
9. Explorers
10. Prelude
11. Survival

But have no idea how that'd sound in order, or where to put Supremacy or Isolated System. Survival is very, very climactic, but would it do as a closer? Maybe you'd need another song after it, to work as a cooldown - so that could give Isolated System enough context to close the album quite nicely? I like the idea of Unsustainable into Madness, though. It sounds very odd going into Isolated System, and I can already hear the slide-off into Madness' "muh-muh-muh-muh" in my head, and it sounds ace, so I wonder if that might've been the original plan. Also like opening and closing with songs which have string intros.

Interview with Dom Howard - he reckons he's going to be doing some kung-fu on the UK tour. And there will be LED pyramids and dancing aliens. I have no idea how much of any given Muse interview I should take seriously.

Speaking of which, here's my favourite one from the archives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOIFt-tZAOQ

[cyberdrummer]

I think this could work:

1. Unsustainable
2. Madness
3. Panic Station
4. Follow Me
5. Animals
6. Save Me
7. Liquid State
8. Supremacy
9. Big Freeze
10. Explorers
11. Prelude
12. Survival
13. Isolated System

[ReaPsTA]

This album is lacking a climax. Real hard.

Indeed.  There's no Knights of Cydonia.

I don't know what to think of this album either.

This, of course, means Muse has won.  We're going to keep listening.

[Mladen]

Ooh, I wanna play too!

1. Panic station
2. Animals
3. Supremacy
4. Madness
5. Big freeze
6. Explorers
7. Survival
8. The 2nd law: Unsustainable
9. The 2nd law: Isolated system
10. Follow me
11. Liquid state
12. Save me

The top half is brilliant, the bottom half is fine to average.

[robwebster]

Ooh, I wanna play too!

1. Panic station
2. Animals
3. Supremacy
4. Madness
5. Big freeze
6. Explorers
7. Survival
8. The 2nd law: Unsustainable
9. The 2nd law: Isolated system
10. Follow me
11. Liquid state
12. Save me

The top half is brilliant, the bottom half is fine to average.

Ah! Me and Cyberdrummer were doing a new running order, rather than a ranking, but I am fully down with this.

1. Prelude & Survival
2. Madness
3. Explorers
4. Panic Station
5. Save Me

6. Supremacy
7. Big Freeze
8. Unsustainable
9. Liquid State
10. Animals

11. Isolated System
12. Follow Me

First group are spectacular, second group are very, very good, and the last group is pretty cool. Note, though, that Survival and Madness have had a lot longer to grow. Appears to be an album that gets better with repeated listens. Which is fantastic. I love that.

[Mladen]

Oh, OK, I guess I should learn to read entire posts. 

[LCArenas]

Animals and Explorers are pretty good. Supremacy is my favorite song from the album so far.

[Jaffa]

There are very few things in the known universe which make me feeling like dancing around like an idiot.

Panic Station is one of them. 

[Nel]

On my first listen. On Save Me right now. it's pretty good. Also like Supremacy and Animals. The rest of what I've heard? Complete garbage. This is The Resistance and Black Holes all over again: a few gems, but the rest is awful.

[Jaffa]

This is The Resistance and Black Holes all over again: a few gems, but the rest is awful.

Just out of curiosity, is this opinion of Black Holes common?  I haven't spent much time talking to Muse fans, so I'm just wondering. 

[Nel]

Er, from what I've seen, it's always seemed half and half. A lot of people love it. I think the only good songs on it are Take A Bow, Map Of The Problematique, and Knights Of Cydonia. The rest always sounded like filler to me.

Save Me was awesome, it really sounds like a PT song. And I'm on Liquid State now. It's fucking AWESOME!  Why isn't more of the album like this?!

[Jaffa]

Fair enough.  Again, just wondering. 

Agreed on Liquid State.  Amazing song. 

[Nel]

I know there are plenty of people who like it just as much as the first three albums, but I just don't really care for it. Though to be honest, I only like a few songs on Origin Of Symmetry and I only really enjoy the first half of Showbiz, so I already know I'm in the minority as far as the Muse discography goes.  It only seems to be at The Resistance where I seem to share the same opinion as a lot of other people.

Alright, having finished the album...

Unsustainable. I have no idea what in the fuck I just listened to, but... I think I liked it? I usually like epic orchestral pieces, and I also like it when there are some evil, almost robotic monotone voiceovers in songs, just not sure how I feel about the suddWUBWUBWUBWUB. And then there's Isolated System. A nice little musical piece on its own, but that is not how you end in album. It just kind of peters out. I agree with what someone said earlier: this album lacks a proper climax. I would have put Liquid State at the end and maybe lengthened the song a bit. I was actually quite surprised by how short it was. By the time I finished typing that last post, it was just ending. 

[robwebster]

Okay. Gonna dig my heels in the ground now. Survival is, barring any challengers in the next two and a half months, my favourite song of the year.

Losing the Olympic shackles has helped cement it. It feels more like it's part of the album nowadays, it's not about sports, it's just survival of the fittest. Reading the booklet has made the lyrics creepier, too - clarifies what the choir's singing. Still not Shakespeare, but the male vocalists are singing "SO! I TOLD you SO!" and the sopranos are going "You were warned but didn't listen." Which, the last one in particular - man!

I'm obsessed, in a way that I've not been with a song in more than a year. Love it.

[MirzekDT]

Er, from what I've seen, it's always seemed half and half. A lot of people love it. I think the only good songs on it are Take A Bow, Map Of The Problematique, and Knights Of Cydonia. The rest always sounded like filler to me.

But, ... but... City Of Delusion

BTW I love whole album except for Invincible and Assassin.

[KevShmev]

This is The Resistance and Black Holes all over again: a few gems, but the rest is awful.

Just out of curiosity, is this opinion of Black Holes common?  I haven't spent much time talking to Muse fans, so I'm just wondering.

I think Black Holes... is absolutely flawless; that and Origin of Symmetry are 1a and 1b on my list of favorite Muse records.

[robwebster]

I'm going to second Black Holes as absolutely flawless. Followed, probably, by The Second Law and Origin of Symmetry at 2a and 2b. Or that's my order today, anyway.

I listened to Absolution the other day and I liked it a lot less than I remembered. Some great, great songs, but some very okay songs, too. It's a wearying listen. The Resistance, on the other hand? I liked a lot more than I remembered. Maybe it's because it no longer has to shoulder the burden of being the latest record. When an album's new, it's dangerous. It might be the uncomfortable proof of a band that's lost their spark. Now that it's not the latest chapter, though, it becomes much easier to love it for what it is, and significantly trickier to resent it for what it's not.

Right now, I'd rank the albums something like...

1. Black Holes & Revelations
--
2a. The Second Law
2b. Origin of Symmetry
--
3. The Resistance
4. Absolution
--
5. Showbiz
6. Hullabaloo

[King Postwhore]

Just picked up The Second Law.  Going to listen to it when I drive to my buds house.  Can't wait.

[KevShmev]

rob, I know what you mean by Absolution being a wearying listen.  I like almost all of the songs on it a lot, but from start to finish, it comes off as a collection of songs rather than a well-flowing record, and the sound of it is a bit annoying.  Okay, most Muse albums reek of compression (damn Loudness Wars), but it is the most noticeably distracting on Absolution.  I can barely stomach the studio version of Stockholm Syndrome anymore since it is absolutely buried in compression.  Many compressed songs sound like you are listening to a song with a blanket over your speakers; Stockholm Syndrome sounds like three blankets are over your speakers.  I almost always listen to the live version from the Glastonbury show (that was on the Absolution tour DVD as an extra, that I ripped the audio from) rather than the studio version. 

But again, it's not like I don't really like it; I do!  I just wish it sounded better.  I hope that they re-release all of their albums someday to be more audio-friendly. 

[Mladen]

Ranking the albums, huh? I'm always into ranking, listings, favorites and shit. 

1. Origin of Symmetry     
2. Absolution    
3. The 2nd Law 
4. Showbiz 
5. Black holes and revelations 
6. The Resistance 

[robwebster]

rob, I know what you mean by Absolution being a wearying listen.  I like almost all of the songs on it a lot, but from start to finish, it comes off as a collection of songs rather than a well-flowing record, and the sound of it is a bit annoying.  Okay, most Muse albums reek of compression (damn Loudness Wars), but it is the most noticeably distracting on Absolution.  I can barely stomach the studio version of Stockholm Syndrome anymore since it is absolutely buried in compression.  Many compressed songs sound like you are listening to a song with a blanket over your speakers; Stockholm Syndrome sounds like three blankets are over your speakers.  I almost always listen to the live version from the Glastonbury show (that was on the Absolution tour DVD as an extra, that I ripped the audio from) rather than the studio version. 

But again, it's not like I don't really like it; I do!  I just wish it sounded better.  I hope that they re-release all of their albums someday to be more audio-friendly. 

That could very well be it! I've not quite been able to put my finger on it, because the album's full to the brim with great songs. It's hit after hit after hit. In fact, I'd say the only song I don't have much time for is Ruled by Secrecy, and even that's got the intense piano bit. By the time I was hitting The Small Print the other day, though, it felt like it'd been on for about an hour.

The songs are good, the content's good, there's not a single track I wouldn't be stoked to see live. Butterflies & Hurricanes, in particular, is among my favourite songs of all time. But to hear it coming, song after song after song... it's relentless. And yeah, I'd say that could very well be down 50:50 to the structure and the production.

To contrast it with Black Holes, I've always felt that Black Holes is very well structured. It comes in distinct chapters - it has acts. Starlight goes well into Supermassive goes well into Map. Soldiers Poem and Invincible are a duo, that end "side one." Side two has a spaghetti western feel from the top of Assassin right to the last chord of Knights of Cydonia. With Absolution, though, each successive song is its own chapter. It's hit after hit after hit - and that might be the problem. Fantastic content, top notch music, but I don't enjoy the album as much as I feel I should. Add the claustrophobia of a very dense sound, and that might be exactly what's going on.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I only bought the album yesterday. I like it quite a bit. Sure there are some throw-aways but there's way more good stuff. I can already comfortably say it's better than The Resistance.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I can already rank this shit.

1. Madness
2. Prelude/Survival
3. Explorers
4. Save Me
5. Supremacy
6. Animals
7. Panic Station
8. Liquid State
8. Unsustainable
9. Isolated System
10. Big Freeze
11. Follow Me

It's kind of a let down that the best songs are the ones that were released earlier and made me hyped for this album. This is not as bad as I originally thought when I listened this first-way through, but it still lacks magic. Liquid State could have been SO much better.
Glorious popped up in my random itunes playlist earlier today, and it made me miss that Muse so fucking much.

[Jaffa]

Album rankings, eh? 

4. The 2nd Law
5. Showbiz
6. The Resistance

The rest are tied for number one. 

[angelusredgrove]

Surprised to see "Big Freeze" ranked alot lower than i thought it would.. that song's been kicking my arse constantly and i can't do anything about it 

[TheOutlawXanadu]

One thing I will say about this album... The Queen and U2 influences are so obvious.

[The King in Crimson]

One thing I will say about this album... The Queen and U2 influences are so obvious.

Well that was true of The Resistance as well, at least regarding the Queen influences.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

One thing I will say about this album... The Queen and U2 influences are so obvious.

Well that was true of The Resistance as well, at least regarding the Queen influences.

I haven't listened to The Resistance in a while, but I feel like on this album it's a little worse. Could be remembering incorrectly, though.

[ReaPsTA]

I can already comfortably say it's better than The Resistance.

I dunno.  2nd Law doesn't have Undisclosed Desires on it.

[The King in Crimson]

I can already comfortably say it's better than The Resistance.

I dunno.  2nd Law doesn't have Undisclosed Desires on it.

That's a plus. 

[SystematicThought]

Undisclosed Desires is awesome!