The British trio Muse releases a new album where major global crises are transformed into music, weighing down an increasingly uncertain future.
Bright and flamboyant, like the summer tour which saw them play all over Europe and notably in France, Muse's new album, Will Of The Peopleuses the projector and the magnifying glass to better show the new direction the planet is taking. Spotlight to illuminate where the shadow cast by the concealment of evidence, fake news, very unnatural embellishments and the total bullshit of various policies; and magnifying glass to better analyze all this diverse and varied content, from the metaverse to the giants of communication, growing anxieties and upheavals to come… without disguise. Nor lighthouse. Muse does not seek to be the compass, he observes, notes. And described. In detail. Underlined in this by a more hardened music, partly captured at Abbey Road, in London, although composed and written in Los Angeles, less cyber rock and more prog metal, highlighting certain very post apocalyptic tracks. We are not celebrating in the content, but the rock that emerges from the grooves of this new opus shows an elaboration, a sense of composition, sometimes theatrical, often virtuoso and always extremely well produced.
Matt Bellamy, chief songwriter, emphasizes here neither a disaster nor an ultra-black vision of the future, but plays more in the dystopian narrative and what was yesterday a fiction, could become in the near future, a sad reality. From the opening title, the tone is set: the group will do something grandiose, hyper-production, a big show. Before changing his mind after this fanfare entry nourished by astonishing production effects, very electronic, with almost new wave keyboards! Then back to a hard 80's with the following titles, notably the surprising and probably best title of the work, “Kill Or Be Killed” followed by “Won't Stand Down”: a heavy, hyper-metallic dense sound, worked to the extreme, emphasizing the aridity of the words. The rest of the effort is to match, there is no mistake about the goods, it is indeed Muse guaranteed on invoice, until the hyper realistic grand finale, “We Are Fucking Fucked”, which as its title indicates, does not leave much room for hope. A self-deprecating masterpiece, cynical but deeply ironic.
The group's creativity is at its peak here and their fans will obviously see all the nods to their already more than 25 year career – and therefore ninth album – where their sense of show and performance remains the only certainty of this album with its astonishing writing. The real question also remains whether Bellamy is playing transgression or political correctness, denouncing the great evils of the world with many big words. The group's detractors will add to their already long litany of sterile criticism: the song is known, as with any great group, from Floyd to the Stones, the content and density would fade as their discography progresses. Here, in ten titles delivered in 37 minutes and 35 seconds, therefore of a rather very short duration, we saw more of a real progress with their most brilliant opus in almost ten years… And which is reminiscent, sometimes, of Dronestheir most political work to date, mixed with Simulation Theory but much more precise and… lyrical.
Discover the secrets of this album with our exclusive interview with Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard, in our issue 145. Visit your newsagent or our online store.
After three festival dates in France, at Beauregard, at the Eurockéennes de Belfort and at Déferlantes, Muse will give an exceptional concert at the Salle Pleyel (Paris) on October 25, to a sold-out crowd.
Will Of The People is available
Here is the tracklist for Will Of The People :
- Will Of The People
- Compliance
- Release
- Won't Stand Down
- Ghosts (How Can I Move On)
- You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween
- Kill Or Be Killed
- Verona
- Euphoria
- We Are Fucking Fucked
