The Resistance

by

Muse

Edit

I've been obsessed with Muse since Origin of Symmetry and I'll have to say this cd worried me when I first heard Uprising before it's release. First off, a little background for me. I play in an instrumental prog/experimental band and run a small recording studio. Other bands I adore are Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Opeth, Pink Floyd, Dredg, and Sigur Ros to name a few...

With that said, Absolution is my favorite Muse hands down. I was slightly bummed by the direction the last album took and was unsure of the future of Muse. HAARP rid me of my fears there.

The Resistance (after many listens) is a huge step in a new direction that they were only pointing at with Black Holes and Revelations. The problem with this album is its song placement and short length for this wide array of styles. If they wanted to really explore each of these areas and sounds, then I believe another 15 minutes or so divided between each style would help solidify this album and make it their cornerstone.

Uprising - This is a good track but no way to start off the cd. This song does not represent the rest of the album at all even if it is powerful and catchy with a great sing-along chorus

The Resistance - The first track that caught my ears on the cd, the title track is definitely a standout with an even balance of creativity and catchiness. I relate this track to Map of the Problematique off their last cd, until the prechorus where it reverts into a style not heard since Absolution. Great bass work on this song.

Undisclosed Desires - the most underrated track on the cd. As poppy as this track seems on the first listen, it is an incredibly gutsy track to add to the disk.. This really reminds me of something from Thom Yorke's Eraser cd, on steroids...with a more glammy Matt Bellamy flair to it. I actually realllly like this track when I don't think of it in the context of the rest of the album. If there were some sort of lead in/out tracks for this it would possibly make more sense and be more at home on the album.

United States of Eurasia - Love this track. It has all those Muse elements that everyone has loved throughout their career. There is the definite Queen influence here, but it was just as noticeable on Knights of Cydonia... Never-the-less its still an amazingly good and epic track. What other rock band uses Chopin? seriously people...

Guiding Light - Eh, it's ok. By no means a bad track, but nothing i'm going to write home about. It does its job.. fill the spot after United States of Eurasia when you are still thinking...what the hell just happened?!?

Unnatural Selection - New Born?? catchy tho.

I Belong to You - A strong look at their earlier work with a fun break in the intensity, the French is a nice addition as well. Fun track.

Exogenesis Symphony - THIS IS THE MUSE I'VE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR! as the Overture begins I feel that there is something amazing getting ready to happen.. and it does.. from Matt Bellamy's own excellent orchestrations to the chord progression to his falsetto melody over the top.. this track is incredible. The second and third pieces are perfectly done as well. This is the set of tracks that should've been the big centerpiece to this album to really wow fans. Instead it is tacked on the end like some last minute stroke of genius.

If I were setting up the track listing here to make this a successful disk, here's what we'd be looking at

United States of Eurasia

Resistance

Guiding Light

Exogenesis Symphony 1,2,3

Uprising

MK Ultra

I Belong to You

Unnatural Selection

but thats just me.... however, after several listens, certain parts of this album are my favorite things Muse has ever done, other tracks could have at least been better placed..

I am pleased with this addition to my Muse collection and will continue to support one of the best bands the world has seen in a very long time.

A few weeks ago, two albums were released on the same day by two of my favorite bands: The Incident from Porcupine Tree, and The Resistance by Muse. This should have been the best week of the year for me, as far as music is concerned. The Incident wasn't bad; it was somewhat middling. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Resistance.

I should preface this by mentioning that I own and adore all of Muse's previous releases. The energy, creativity, and variety of all of their previous albums leaves little more to be desired. What motivated them to come up with such an uninteresting, unfocused, and boring album is beyond me.

The best work on this album, MK Ultra and the title track, are good songs, to be sure. As good as their best work on their first four albums? Not even close. There are also several adequate tracks (The Uprising, Unnatural Selection, The United States of Eurasia, Exogenesis) which aren't bad per se, but don't really give us any good reason to listen to them instead of everything they've done before now. I suppose this is fine; most albums have some filler, anyways.

What really brings down this album are three tracks that are, to put it bluntly, garbage. Undisclosed Desires is overproduced, under-thought pop drivel that should make Chris Cornell a little less ashamed of his latest album. It is so bad that it does not even pass the lowest requirement of merely tolerable background noise, which is to not be irritating. Guiding Light sounds like another superfluous power ballad that managed to escape from the lowest echelons of that horrid decade known as the 80s. What made them think this tripe would be a good idea, I'll probably never know. I Belong To You is a bit more of an enigma. It feels like somewhere inside that unfocused mess, there's a good song trying to get out. Ultimately, it's probably a song that was too bad for one of their older albums, but surfaced now because it was the only idea left. They're scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.

Despite those three awful tracks, this album could be reasonably decent if it weren't for the distracting lyrics. They've certainly taken a step back in that department. Instead of thought-provoking reflections on love, politics, and spirituality, we get conspiratorial ramblings along the lines of "THEY WILL NOT FOOOORCE US/THEY WILL STOP DEGRAAAAAADING US/THEY WILL NOT CONTROLLLLLL US/WE WILL BE VICTOOOOOOORIOUS!!!!" I am as anti-establishment as anybody, but come on! Put a little more effort into it...