I figured this would happen. Throughout their discography, Muse or maybe just Matt Bellamy have shown keen interest in the melancholic beauty of epic music. It’s about time they gave in to their artistic fetish as gloriously as one can fall into addiction. “The Resistance” is a smooth experiment in mixing the generic with the atypical; the result is interesting enough. I felt that Muse were going to try something like this after a slew of albums so reliant on their melodies, and while it’s almost exactly as I predicted it would sound, I’m glad I was right. Nothing else in their discography can rival this album’s monstrous level of pride and prejudice against something diabolical straight out of an Orwell novel. Bellamy has dropped his usual poetic lyrics for straightforward accusations and infatuated narrative alike, a fresh break if you ask me; drastically professional production pushes a captivating new style on listeners, and Muse’s selection of instruments has changed as well and thankfully not for the worse. The band are looking in a different direction, but with binoculars so to speak…nothing about this album sounds contrived nor amateur, everything is flowing quite naturally and heroically. While each of their past records had a storyline “The Resistance” makes it the focal point; no more show-off riffs despite how good they are, no more scattered lyricism, and way more theme. If there ever was a real rock-opera…
There is little doubt about what this album is: emotional. Using a romantic companion character to represent his fallen and falling comrades, Matt Bellamy tells a story of two, or maybe a few billion, living in tyranny and struggling to stay together as nature intended in some filthy unnatural selection. The way Matt talks about all these people as if they were his one and only true love on
I Belong To You is both cathartic and startlingly accurate:
”How much pain has cracked your soul?” How close to death have these lies and deceptions pushed you?
”How much love would make you whole?” Is love really our resistance? Perhaps, since unity is the only way to defeat Muse’s monster. An organized, premeditated monster who hunts the people addressed by Muse similarly through media and pleasure but with a totally different purpose. I think it’s funny how lucid and common this story is, yet so few people have read it before. When Matt sings “It’s up to you” he’s talking to
you. Give him one good reason why you shouldn’t give “The Resistance” a few chances and if it doesn’t work, try it again differently. Compare this album’s limitless metaphor to the people fighting against what you hate, then tell me if it doesn’t capture their furious dissent and compassionate intentions. The stadium anthem sound of these songs enforces Muse’s wide regard and is a breath of hope that their countless supporters will understand these simply observant lyrics. What’s a better way to communicate your protest than to shout it? Whether or not this record will cause a political commotion, the point is that it
should. You can hear it for miles. “The Resistance” is a summary of Muse’s songwriting capability, and while some may call it ordinary or lethargic, I feel it’s energy resonating inside like blood. The chaotic violins of the
Overture or
Guiding Light’s echoing drums press the right buttons on my spiritual dashboard; Muse breathed life, death, love and hate into these beautiful songs that grow and grow until the climax on
Cross Pollination,
you must rescue us all. The album points a finger, not an incriminating finger but a warning. “The Resistance” is like a morning alarm, it will continue to play until someone shuts it off, and who knows if that will be
you? Do
you want strange people in your bedroom?
This record compares well to their previous works, bringing a new Muse to the table that seemed so barren after the massively average "Black Holes And Revelations". But especially after Black Holes I heard something different in their music, and that was the lack of normality. Muse were once known to be a totally guitar-fueled wrecking crew of epic proportions, and while they've kept that latter aspect in their tunes the guitar, bass and even the drums play far less of a role in these songs - again, a fresh break if you ask me. The best moments of all the "post-Showbiz" albums happened when Matt threw some electronic-progressive innovation into the mix and "The Resistance" is brimming with it. If I were most critics, I would trust Britain's tallest musical mammoth with the task of leaving conventional means behind on the long road of their discography. To be very honest if you weren't expecting this to happen eventually, you weren't listening carefully enough. I'm thoroughly convinced that Muse will carry on this path, paving it as they go along simply because of three songs: the Exogenesis series. The post-classical trilogy made it clear that Muse's primary songwriter is a composer, and any fine composer will tell you how it's useless to rely on one instrument all the time, perhaps in this case that instrument is the guitar. So they've given up their signature style, is that bad? If his band members have a problem with it I encourage Bellamy to break off from them to create his own music project, along the lines of whatever the fuck he wants. Let's not forget his talent, and please, allow "The Resistance" to boil before you take it off the stove. This isn't a record to be listened to once, twice, or even ten times before making any decisions about it, its growing on me and some parts are even growing away from me as we converse. From a musical standpoint “The Resistance” is hardly the finest Muse album available, but the sheer amount of potential it shows for them is astounding, as if we didn’t already see that before.
It caresses the ears and tranquilizes the savage beast. After this monumental shift Muse will either crash and burn or soar to the stars - while I hope to see them among constellations this can really go either way, but either way, at least we have "The Resistance". With lyrics that tug sharply at the heartstrings of anyone who can appreciate a deep romance, and a perfect mesh of instrumental influences my thirst for a new Muse record is quenched. I have little doubt that the instructions bursting from between the lines of Matt's words will be ignored by many they address, but if one must live with few companions in a world of enemies, at least we have the best music.
