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Hedrigall posted:Various people involved in Muse management/production have been tweeting pictures of bees in the last few days. Maybe it's a metaphor involving bees. Bees, guys. Just in case you're not being sarcastic: drones are a kind of bee. Drones would be an acceptable title because it's simple and not too pompous, unlike some Muse titles I could mention.
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Jan 31, 2015 22:58
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BOAT SHOWBOAT posted:I misread your OP and thought Shania Twain was one of the producers on the album. At this point in their rather mixed career this would not make Muse any less absurd.
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Feb 7, 2015 23:53
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Hedrigall posted:Edit: Oh, it sounds like Bombtrack by RATM It's not a cover, if that's what you mean, it's just derivative. They've been stealing from RATM since Origin of Symmetry (compare Snake Charmer and Hyper Music).
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Feb 28, 2015 18:29
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You think "Dead Inside" is a cool name for a song?
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Mar 10, 2015 22:13
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Worst track list yet, and that's saying something. Album art's shocking too. What a metaphor!MOAR posted:What it comes down to is that Muse are superior, and still doing the biz. RATM good until 1999, and not one of the greatest even then. It's not even a comparison. Have you listened to Snake Charmer? I put it to you that it is a comparison. But that's not the point. The point was that Muse have been doing RATM-style riffs for years and years and that's why someone might mistake one of their riffs for a RATM cover.
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Mar 12, 2015 00:52
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I don't get why Muse can't write songs any more. By that I don't just mean in some high-level wanky "this song sucks!" way (though the song does suck), I mean they've lost the ability to cement ideas together, to sequence ideas into sensible patterns. It used to be one of their great strengths - songs that were maybe workmanlike but built like brick shithouses, with particularly intelligent bridges. This is just a bunch of different go-nowhere riffs taped together haphazardly, with terrible lyrics that before you even get to their intellectual content just don't scan. To be honest I never liked that riff that much 15 years ago either.
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Mar 12, 2015 20:28
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"I'll improve your thresholds!" I noticed something weird recently. Any terrible Muse lyric suddenly becomes brilliant and quirky and savage if you imagine Bjork singing it instead. I don't know why, but it's true.  "Embedded spies / brainwashing our children / to be meaaaaan ~~"
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Mar 12, 2015 20:36
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Fat Turkey posted:Trying to put my finger on what modern Muse singles or whatever it is that I don't like.
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Mar 14, 2015 00:58
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Hedrigall posted:All you motherfuckers decrying the death of the old Muse, go suck a big motherfucking droney dick: http://youtu.be/D0jHUwLq7OI Are you suggesting that old Muse was 80s hair metal with right-hand tapping solos?
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Mar 16, 2015 01:16
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Fat Turkey posted:I agree (to a point) with the lyrics issue, and I think it does tie into the same military/facist rebellion stance they are pushing [...] But Muse wheel around on tours telling us about THEM AGAINST US and FIGHT and DRONES as rich people who don't actively go any further to make a difference. OK, so maybe they don't actually mean it and it's all tongue in cheek. I could live with that, if the music made up for the disingenuous lyrics. It's not that it's hypocritical, it's that it's dumb. Nothing of Muse could remotely be called protest music or even political. It wears the aesthetic of protest music like a kid playing dress-up. The enemy in Muse's music is invariably "they": they will not oppose us, they will not control us, will they find our hiding place? Who the gently caress are you talking about? In Nineteen Eighty-Four (which The Resistance directly references in its mention of thought police) the state is constantly at war, but the enemy is never defined and might not even exist at all. The citizens are kept in a constant state of anger and hate and confusion, so they can be controlled. Muse's music uses exactly the same trick to create exciting rock music, but I don't think they realise the irony of this, and how crass it makes their music. Of course, stadium concerts were always fascist rallies. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd realised this and wrote an entire album about it. In "In the Flesh", Nazi-like banners fall from the ceiling and the singer in the band, a sort of psuedo-Roger, marches out and machine-guns the audience: quote:Are there any queers in the theater tonight? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfqCKUfW0K0 It's still cheesy as gently caress, but at least it knows what the gently caress it's doing, at least it has a point - and in 1979, it was a major risk, a challenging and sort of frightening album. quote:with a middle 8 which used to contain good solos, but now is just the main riff repeated like he's forgotten the words to a secret verse. Correctamundo! Nothing exemplifies the drop in Muse's songwriting better than the tragic death of the great Muse bridge. That's when they used to drop some new element that built on what we'd already come to and make perfect sense of it. EXAMPLE poo poo MUSE BRIDGES: Supermassive Black Hole - verse again, with vague synth thing on top Knights of Cydonia (OK, this one's an outro): riff again, with vague synth thing on top (compare that to the clever ascending solo he played in the Abbey Road performance) Undisclosed Desires: verse again, vague synth and "ooh" on top Survival - play a riff, then as it ramps up, play the riff again but a bit higher on the fretboard Psycho - play a riff
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Mar 16, 2015 21:46
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massive spider posted:I actually really like Survival and the bridge solo bit. Its also their nadir as far as lyrics go though. The Olympics performance was fun: At 1:15 in that performance, the guitar riff enters. And that's fine, that's one idea. It loops around a few times. Sure, OK. Idea established, we get the picture, let's move on. Then around 1:41 it quickly ascends up the scale - suggesting the beginning of a new idea. Except the next idea is just to repeat almost the same riff but further up the fretboard. That's it.
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Mar 19, 2015 20:30
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Both the song and video are a Bond theme. One of the 80s ones with Timothy Dalton. Dance into the fire!
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Mar 23, 2015 23:43
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I wonder what the record company thinks it's achieving by pulling these bootlegs.
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May 10, 2015 23:30
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Muse's slow transformation into U2 is the twist no one expected. Or wanted. This is another non-event of a song. Strange mixing on this one. The chugging guitars are really quiet in the chorus.
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May 17, 2015 17:08
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This poo poo sounds like the b-sides they were putting out for BHAR.
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May 17, 2015 18:03
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Not from OoS, it didn't. But then that was ten thousand years ago.
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May 17, 2015 22:23
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What's the appeal of Dead Inside? It's Undisclosed Desires again, but even more underwritten. The bit that really bakes my noodle is the drum break at 2.27. It's the blandest, driest drum beat in the world. It sounds like the backing track for a guitar practice DVD.
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May 22, 2015 18:07
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I listened to The 2nd Law again yesterday. You know what, I like Supremacy. The lyrics are still godawful but I like the riff, and the way the choruses alternate the riff and the chugging staccato from the intro is smart. It's like they actually wrote a loving song with a beginning, middle and end. It's still far too glossy and overproduced, of course, particularly in the verses. Madness, again, has a sensible structure, and the solo is cute, but I can't get with it, daddy-o, because the outro is just too lame-rear end U2 and I can't deal with the "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma". The outro ends way too suddenly and the lyrics are, again, the worst thing possible. Panic Station could have been cool, maybe, if it didn't have the production values of a Sonic Adventure soundtrack and Matt didn't try to improvise "waoooo!" singing tics exactly like your mum would. Survival sounds like The Most Unwanted Song - that is, the song a gang of sadistic (or masochistic) musicians created in response to running a poll of the musical elements people find most irritating. Follow Me is I Will Survive with the production of the Worms Armageddon title music, and Muse's worst song. Animals is probably the album's best song, because it most resembles something from Absolution and because it exercises a tiny degree of restraint. Loses points for lyrics (in fact just subtract a hundred points from the entire album for this reason), cliched bluesy noodling between every line in the verse, and the shouting over the outro, which is otherwise an uncharacteristically smart polyrhythmic riff. Every time I listen to Explorers I fall into a sickly coma. Big Freeze is U2 and who cares. Save Me is the lead single off a some britrock band's debut album from like 2000, Vex Redd or someone like that, which no one cares about. Liquid State has a cool super-Musey bass riff and I find the piano pleasingly funny in a silent-movie-melodrama sort of way, but the production kills any anger and urgency it might have had, the singing is forgettable and the whole thing builds to an anticlimax without anyone noticing. The last two tracks are both dreadful.
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May 22, 2015 18:26
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KillerMojo posted:Aside from the avatar, I can always identify your posts through that seething repugnance for the band you've been brooding for a while now. While I don't disagree with your points (after stripping away a bit of the hyperbole anyway), the amplitude of your disdain has me wondering why you even bother at this point. I'd love to hear what redeeming qualities the band retains that keeps Popcorn checking the SA Muse thread. Discussing stuff is fun even when the stuff you're discussing isn't.
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May 22, 2015 22:44
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Hedrigall posted:Hmm, I've never heard any piano in that song before. I just listened to the instrumental and it actually sounds like a synth keyboard, so, almost. It's 100% there - staccato piano chords entering at 0.07. Very, very Muse.
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May 23, 2015 00:53
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Sir Lemming posted:As I've probably said way too many times in this thread alone, I wish they'd complete their arc of imitating Radiohead and ditch the pretense of being a "rock band" since their heart doesn't seem to be in that anymore. I don't think they've made a truly great predominantly electronic track yet (unless you count Map of the Problematique, which I don't, really). Supermassive is fun, but marked the start of the current age of rubbish Muse bridges and ends up feeling like half a song. Strangely, I always thought Justice's debut album had something in common with Muse, but I've yet to figure out what. They could have gone in that direction and made it work. Maybe.
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May 23, 2015 14:20
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If Muse wants to do camp and electronic, and actually make it good at the same time, they should do a new jack swing song. Here's a recent J-pop/new jack swing fusion example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhbq65WcH3o I'm not kidding. I think it would work. Popcorn fucked around with this message at 17:35 on May 23, 2015 |
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May 23, 2015 17:31
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Finally, a decent song from this album. I feared this might be Muse's first 100% disaster record (the last two albums suck but they each have one song that doesn't.) Sounds like the song actually has a loving backbone. The live versions made me worry Reapers would just be a shite hair metal pastiche, but somehow the studio version sounds urgent and current. The intro drum sound alone is a strong statement of intent. It's still obviously high-production-values, but it sounds alive. Great to hear they resisted putting yet more Queen-style layered backing vocals in the chorus - the distorted falsetto almost sounds like OoS, believe it or not. (The outro is a a dead ringer for the Hyper Music feedback to boot.) And it's actually catchy!
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May 30, 2015 17:45
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JONES. KILLED. BY. JONES.
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May 30, 2015 21:22
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Don't you guys think the solo in The Handler feels like it's supposed to have some singing over it? It's like, "is that it?"
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Jun 2, 2015 11:06
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Joooooones. Kiiiiilled by Joooones. By Joooones
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Jun 3, 2015 13:16
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henpod posted:Also the album has a nice range of different bass distortions - always liked how much prominence bass has on muse songs and does it's own thing. I do feel like the drumming isnt as creative as it has been in the past. Yep. The bass does sound good on this album, and the drums are very meat-and-potatoes. It's a sucky album, as predicted, but I do like the way some of it sounds. The production is less syrupy and flamboyant than the last albums, which is a good thing, but the songwriting hasn't followed suit. FUN TASK: listen to the live version of Plug in Baby on the Newborn single. (It's on Spotify.) It sounds remarkably raw, ragged... unanthemic. We'll never hear Muse sound like that again. Paperback Writer posted:E: oh yeah I haven't seen it mentioned, but a lot of The Globalist is the song Soaked but totally re-done. Just like The 2nd Law, a lot of Jones sounds like other bits of music, including old Muse. Mercy is Starlight but with fewer chord changes and less charm. The Handler has the In Your World riff, and at 3:20 plunges briefly into the chord progression and vocal melody from the end of Showbiz. The feedback at the end of Drones sounds uncannily like the feedback at the end of Plug in Baby, which is weird because you wouldn't think feedback could ever have much of a fingerprint. (Maybe it's just the fuzz factory.) Defector is obviously Queen. You can sing U2 - "with or without you" - over the "you can revolt, you can revolt, you can revolt" bit of Revolt. Aftermath starts off Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms, but transforms into Everything I Do by Bryan Adams for the outro. The Globalist intro is Morricone (duh), but some of the incidental guitar work is totally Pink Floyd, and the bit before the big riff in Globalist re-uses the (cliched) chord progression from the Unnatural Selection chorus. Popcorn fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Jun 3, 2015 |
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Jun 3, 2015 18:05
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electricHyena posted:
Popcorn posted:Discussing stuff is fun even when the stuff you're discussing isn't.
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Jun 3, 2015 22:20
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I'm going to say this is better than the last album and maybe the one before it, because it seems to somehow have a sense of fun to its stupidity, whereas the last ones felt like they were being held hostage to something, I'm not sure what. There is somehow, perversely, a sense of maturity here - I feel like this is an album Muse really wanted to make, even if it's not the album some of us wanted them to make. I also think it hangs together better as a coherent vision. Despite being made up of other songs, it has more of its own identity than Resistance or 2nd Law. it's sonically dark, stark even, which creates an interesting contrast with the characteristically flamboyant songwriting. ... it's still not a good album, though. The catchy bits are too absurd to really enjoy, and the other stuff is just boring.
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Jun 4, 2015 18:42
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Sir Lemming posted:So, this review is actually pretty terrible because it really never even discusses the music itself ... Again, really not a good music review but I do tend to agree about the lyrics. That's a great review. The lyrics are part of the music, and ostensibly a major part of this particular music. It's the premise the entire album is built on, and so worthy of thorough discussion. Besides, the author nails the non-lyrical part of the album here: " For devoted fans, the uncomfortable truth is that they’re stuck in a glam-rock rut ... Yes, the grandiose opera-meets-dubstep ambition of last LP ‘The 2nd Law’ has been reined in, but we’re a long way from the slash-and-burn riffery of ‘Plug in Baby’." That's kind of all that needs to be said.
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Jun 6, 2015 16:23
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It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me. It's the way they assume the anti-authority guise so dimwittedly, like it's loving exciting. It's not even misguided adolescent smash-the-state stuff, because at least that's sincere.
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Jun 7, 2015 01:02
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Here's a tiny Muse mystery: the abundance of tambourine in their newer albums. Check it out on the verses of Psycho or last chorus of Reapers, for example. It's a really weird choice because tambourines have connotations of indie and folk, and here it is mixed into their motorbiking rhythm section over crunching drop-D riffs. What the hell is it doing there?
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Jun 7, 2015 18:16
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Absolution does have a few weak tracks. Nothing outright bad, but stuff that could be trimmed to keep the quality high and the running time low. Falling Away With You is first against the wall - definite B-side material and doesn't fit with the urgency and grace of the rest of the album. Sing for Absolution is a bit bland and the sounds are dated. I'd probably kill TSP too - I like it but when you're competing with Hysteria and Stockholm Syndrome for high-octane rockers, you're gonna fall behind.Fat Turkey posted:Correction to the correction the only bad song on Absolution is Ruled By Secrecy. It's so dull. I beg to differ. Inevitably Jones has got me looking back at classic Muse again, and Ruled by Secrecy is the one I've been appreciating in particular. It exemplifies a lot of their strengths. It's grandiose without being camp. It's sinister without being cartoonish. It's simple - piano, bass, drums - with a simple structure that works well - building tension before exploding into the bridge. (Like I said before, workmanlike but built like a brick shithouse.) The bridge itself is a smart extension of the verses, using the same chord progression but exploded into cod-classical drama that doesn't outstay its welcome. The vocals are glassy and chilling, especially the harmonies. Even the lyrics are good - nothing to set your world on fire, but they do the job, serve the mood and don't have ideas above their station. Ruled by Secrecy rules.
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Jun 8, 2015 14:53
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Hedrigall posted:By the way, "Jones", is this a thing you are doing to be funny? It's not really working dude. That's exactly the question I want to ask Matt Bellamy.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:03
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Fat Turkey posted:Its like he throws in a deliberate mispronunciation in all the new albums. He mispronounces 'Reponds' in I Belong To You, which is in French admittedly, but he covers the song so he should know what it should sound like). I'm sure I spotted one in 2L too but I can't place it ATM. The man has a lisp, and he's also just a bit crap at words. United States of Eurasia: "You and me / fall in line." Grammatically speaking, that should be "You and I", and more to the point then it would loving rhyme.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:03
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I like Thoughts of a Dying Atheist too. It's upbeat but still feels vulnerable and endearing - it's sincere, cute, and sorta funny to boot. It works really well as the penultimate track before Ruled by Secrecy sends us home with our tails between our legs. Seriously, though, I get that SFA and FAWY have relevant lyrical themes, but the apocalypse thing was always pretty loose anyway, and they're the weakest links. The album's a little bit baggy and overlong and something's gotta go. e: I do at least appreciate Jones's brevity, despite that 10-minute clunker near the end.
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Jun 8, 2015 21:19
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I think BHAR's pretty good on the whole, but it was definitely the turning point. The production got too "hot", the harmonies too ridiculous, some of the lyrics are proper bad (Destroy this city of delusion!!) and it was the start of the Great Muse Bridge Rot (see my earlier moaning in this thread about that). Hedrigall is correct in identifying Map of the Problematique as basically perfect. Sir Lemming posted:"So, listen... Drones are bad... m'kay? And, and you shouldn't use 'em... and they're bad... m'kay..." I think the biggest missed opportunity with the drones concept is that it should have been authentically terrifying. It should have actually sounded like you and your family are being bombed to death by drones. It should have used the power of heavy rock music, with layers of droning feedback, to actually evoke that dread and terror, and that mood should have persisted until the finale. Reapers sort of tries to do that at the end, but it still sounds way too much like a bunch of kids having fun in a mosh pit. The Observer review is exactly right when it says: "There’s a glaring missed opportunity here to incorporate more musical drone, a rich seam of elegiac, heavy music. Aftermath does start with a faintly eastern hum – the calm after the storm of Revolt, the previous track – but the moment quickly passes." You can keep riffs and melodies, I'm not asking for a John Cage-style hour of atonal horror, but basically this album should have been terrifying and it isn't, it's dumb.
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Jun 9, 2015 17:41
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KillerMojo posted:Matt's said he's more concerned with making the lyrics sound right in a song from a vocal perspective, and that they're the last part of the process for him (as if that needed to be confirmed). Alright fine, I would agree with that if they're going to make them totally indecipherable anyway (microcuts is just random words thrown together), but since BHAR he's been working on a cleaner vocal style that emphasizes his lovely lyrics over using his voice as another instrument in the mix. That started before BHAR. I remember the first time I heard Absolution, and I thought: "wow, you can actually hear what he's singing now, and it kind of makes sense". Time is Running Out seemed like such a pop song back then: "I think I'm drowning / asphyxiated..." It's not just that Muse's lyrics were unintelligible in the early days - I still don't know what half the words on OOS are - but they really were better. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're not going to win any prizes, but they were genuinely surreal, and served the subject matter: "My plug-in baby crucifies my enemies".
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Jun 9, 2015 17:47
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the truth posted:MotP in all its alleged perfection had such an excellent bridge! Doesn't need one, daddy-o.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:40
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Pirate Jet posted:Muse's lack of bridges confuses me given that the bridge of Stockholm Syndrome is basically the best thing they've ever done. Absolution certainly doesn't lack bridges - they're often the best bit, the moment when everything in the song strikes together in an exciting direction. Stockholm Syndrome, Ruled by Secrecy, Apocalypse Please, Butterflies, Hysteria, TIRO... even the moment in TIRO when everything drops back to the fuzzy bassline is a simple and effective midpoint. Like I said, BHAR is the album when they started to get lazy. Revisit Supermassive Black Hole's bridge and ask yourself what the hell it's achieving.
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Jun 10, 2015 10:57
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