***** In a world where the most popular acts play it safe with pseudo-meaningful lyrics and formulaic guitar driven drivel, Muse's Teignmouth trio are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale and pallid pantheon of bands proclaimed the 'greatest rock acts in the world today'.
Their ambition knows no bounds and for this reason alone they must be championed. Critics often disregard their work as pompous, bombastic and even a little silly but this in itself is why Muse should be so cherished.
Take single 'United States of Eurasia' and consider its component parts - an Arabian influenced bridge and a piano led classical coda each bookending a movement of choral chanting. It sounds absurd but when you actually hear it on record it is joyous.
'Uprising' has an intro which sounds like the theme tune to 'Dr Who' on speed and even wackier still, the riff from 'MK Ultra' recalls 80's quiz show classic 'Treasure Hunt'! Kenneth Kendall would no doubt approve.
Frustratingly, for such an eclectic musical feast, Matt Bellamy's lyric writing never reaches the same heights. Worthy themes abound but lines such as, "They'll keep us apart/they won't stop breaking us down" are all too often symptomatic of his problem.
Who exactly are 'they'? Give me some specifics. My old history teacher would often say the same when we answered questions in class. It became a kind of catchphrase. Not that we'd care obviously. While he hung his head in exasperation, we were busy humming the theme tune from 'World at War'.
However, regardless of the umbrage I take at this, I can't possibly hold it against them for long - I've already reached the album's defining 'Exogenesis' suite and its galactic pomposity is just too wondrous to ignore. In 'Redemption', the final part of the symphony, Bellamy wails about the human race starting over again.
It's almost naive and childish in its simplicity but somehow that's also what evokes the song's great sadness and desperation. As a child might ask of his grandparents in years to come, "Couldn't you stop what was happening? Couldn't you just go back and start over?" Something which at first seems so simple, often isn't and an album that could have played it simple....well it didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment