Rating: ★★★★☆
Rating: ★★★★☆2009 will always be a set year in music history; Michael Jackson’s death, Susan Boyle becoming an internet sensation and the complicated relationship between the Gallagher brothers somewhat ending Oasis. The year also marked the release of a number of high-profile albums, including This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars and No Line On The Horizon by U2, but one whose ‘iconic’ status can be questioned, is Muse’s The Resistance.
In what is the fifth studio album by the Devonshire lads, elements of classical music influences the songs and appears in some of them too, more notably at the end of United States of Eurasia and later in the final three Exogenesis tracks.
The opening of the album is Uprising, the lead single, and instantly you are taken by a new electronic sound that sounds somewhat familiar to what you’d expect to hear in the opening theme to Doctor Who. A dirty bass line drives the song into the title song, The Resistance. Once a ghostly intro is out of way, the song pushes forwards a strengthening verse and chorus that only demonstrates the best of Muse and what they have to offer. I’d argue that the two songs should have been swapped in their ordering, they begin a journey that the album takes you on, continuing with the second single, Undisclosed Desires.
In talking to NME Magazine, Matthew Bellamy explained that the albums inspiration lay with his girlfriend and he believed ‘people have had enough of geo-political stuff by the end of the album’, and the near-dancy track reflects this. You could also compare it to David Bowie’s earlier work with pulsing beats, syncopation and melodic vocal lines. United States of Eurasia takes its spot afterwards, putting back geo-politics back into the centre of Muses’ agenda. The songs builds into a climax of varying sounds, almost with a Western approach to Eastern European music before Queen-like vocals, which Brian May has expressed approval. In a flash however, the song has an outburst into the first direct piece of classical music in the hidden track titled ‘Collateral Damage’, to which Nocturne In E-Flat Major, Op.9 No.2, by Frédéric Chopin is performed with the added sounds of jet planes and children’s laughter. If it wasn’t for the political theme, you’d think you were at an airport.
Guiding Light lets the album down by giving out so much energy that it struggles to excite and build into anything further. Instead, it peacefully whittles down into Unnatural Selection – the heaviest song on offer out of the eleven. I personally think that this is one of the more natural songs on the album and a section in half time before suddenly impacting in the heavier ending confirms this. Unnatural Selection also stands ahead as the longest song on the album at nearly seven minutes, but its a great seven minutes to get your teeth into. MK Ultra follows with a similarly heavy theme and electronic sounds and is written predominantly about “brain washing and the psychological manipulation that has been going on in the world, behind closed doors and via the media during the 20th century”, says Matt.
I Belong To You has french influence and another classical take on the prog-rock scene which after on paper, and after listening to the album so far, should work – however doesn’t quite fulfil your expectations. A bass clarinet solo at the end feels somewhat out of place before the ending in Exogenesis.
The 40-person symphony is split into three parts; Overture, Cross-Polination and Redemption and reflect three different moods, in a similar but by far larger way than the one-track Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Overture is themed around the mood that civilisation will end, when Cross-Polination is the desperate hope of sending astronauts into space to find life. The dramatic story is furthered in its lyrics, which read;
Rise above the crowds, and wade through toxic clouds
Breach the outer sphere, the edge of all our fears
Rest with you, we are counting on you
It’s up to you
According to Matt, Regeneration is about the moment “when the astronauts realize that it is just one big cycle, and recognize unless humanity can change it will happen all over again.”
Apart from a few minor points on the album, the release feels like it should have more of an impact which is just didn’t have. Instead, Muse then went onto release The 2nd Law and a song for the Olympics which wasn’t favoured amongst fans.
