The new Muse album...

Review-wise it's probably their best one yet. Judging by the single I'm afraid too much production is going into it but it'll still probably be awesome.

I preordered it a while ago and trying not to listen to the leak before it comes out. So far so good.

There's a LOT of pop influence in it, even more than BH&R. There's one song that sounds like it could easily have been a U2 single. It's also about as thematically all over the place as the last one was, but I don't think that'll bother Muse fans one bit. Most of the songs surprisingly work on an individual basis and a few of them are instant classics in my mind (especially Unnatural Selection, which as far as I'm concerned is one of their best songs ever).

Actually USoE really is shit, but anyone who complains that The Resistance is too experimental and unfocused should have given up after the last one anyway.

Honestly, I liked Muse much better when they were making darker, more consistent stuff like Absolution and Origin of Symmetry, but again, any of the complaints in that review could be applied to the last one as well. I'm guessing whoever wrote that had no idea what they were getting into -- which isn't to say that they're wrong, just that fans will likely be unaffected by it. And I've listened to the album anyway and liked it so fucked if I care.

Haha I didn't say the album was experimental. I said it was a half-baked attempt at being experimental. And I knew what I was getting into: a terrible album!

edit - and yes Blackholes was the beginning of Matt Bellamy wanting to be Thom Yorke.

I actually liked Black Holes because it was something different and convinced me that they're not a one trick pony. Absolution and OoS are my favorites but it was still a nice break.

There seemed to be a lot of production in the two songs I heard but if done correctly that might not necessarily be a bad thing. The song titles also sound a bit pretentious, even for Muse standards.

Still I can't wait until it comes out!

Ha, I had the sneaking suspicion that you were the one who wrote that, but considering the screen name I'd hoped against it :)

It really is over-the-top and I was thinking that none of the songs individually represent the album as a whole. But I don't really buy into the argument that a band's attempts to mix things up mean that they don't know what they want to be. I mean, couldn't the same thing be said about Radiohead, given how much their music differs from one album to next next?

USoE was the first track to leak and it's a shit song, which really lowered my expectations, and I'm just glad the album as a whole wound up much better. I probably do need to sleep on it, though. Just out of curiosity, what's your take on Unnatural Selection? That's the one song that really feels like a nod to their first three LPs in my mind.

Honestly I'm pretty much sick and tired of Muse and just like a few standout tracks on OoS & Absolution these days. Blackholes I do think was a better album because its ideas weren't as stupid or poppy as some of the tracks on The Resistance. Sportsman, frankly Uprising and United States of Eurasia are two of the worst songs on the album, and you'll likely enjoy the "alt rock" songs if you still like Muse.

Unnatural Selection sounds pretty homogeneous to me compared to the rest of the rock songs on the album. Nothing really stood out from it. The "doesn't know what they want to do thing" is mostly trolling so I wouldn't really try to dissect it much. Of course for Radiohead you may want to remember that when they try something different it's tends to turn out pretty well. I can't say the same for Undisclosed Desires.

Haha fair enough. But yeah Sportsman, USoE is by far the worst song on there so if you're okay with that one, then I'm guessing you'll like the album.

Also you have to remember this is all coming from someone that now loves prog, listens to NOISE, and makes digital drone music for laughs.

No more metal? As always, I eagerly await what you'll be listening to six months from now.

Seriously though, I can really see why somebody wouldn't like The Resistance, especially lyrically. If it's not cheesy Coldplay-esque love songs, it's half-assed attempts at political messages. But then again nobody got into Muse for their lyrics in the first place -- and I'm not defending them by saying that, just noting that most Muse fans will probably like the album.

I still like metal. And hip-hop. But neither of those are very weird.

Frankly I'd like to listen to more classical, jazz, and "jazz-hop."