The Resistance

I've been wanting to write a review on this since it's release in September, so here it goes. Another one of my most anticipated album release from one of my all-time favourite bands. I did a preview of the album here when United States of Eurasia came out. The Resistance draws heavily the inspiration from George Orwell's 1984. Most of the songs in The Resistance are related at least to one aspect of the novel. My two personal favourites in the album are "Resistance" and "Unnatural Selection".

The first track, "Uprising" has quite a catchy tune to it and I love the music video! It features the band moving through in a truck through some sort of toy city and then there are giant teddy bears tearing the whole city apart..haha. Weird and wacky,but that's Muse alright. "Resistance" depicts the love story of Winston and Julia and it summarises perfectly how their love forms a kind of resistance against Big Brother. "Undisclosed Desires" is one song which is very RnB sounding. Not exactly my favourite but I gotta give credit to Muse for venturing into there and making it sound good with their instruments. Alongside with "supermassive Blackhole", Matt Bellamy shows that he can do RnB if he wants to..haha. That just goes to show how rock musicians can be flexible and venture into other territories but it rarely happens the other way round. =p

"Guiding Light" comes in beautifully right after the jet plane roar in USOE. The track does remind me a little of "Invincible" from the Black Holes album. "Unnatural Selection" starts with an electric organ and progressively builds up with electric guitar. I like the word play at the pre-chorus with the double high-hat taps. 'Droplets in the ocean' is an obvious reference to Oceania and Winston's strong resistance in becoming part of Oceanic society mob mentality. The draggy chorus just makes me wanna scream out aloud "I want the truth!"..haha. It ends off with a superb guitar riff but it's a pity coz it's very short. I hope that they do somehow increase it's length in their live performances. If you wanna have some education on conspiracy theories, then "Mk Ultra" comes in handy. I did a search on it and it seems that Mk Ultra refers to a secret mind-control programme that the US government and CIA engages during the 1950s and 1970s. It's all the LSD stuff and Ken Kensey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was inspired from there after he himself volunteered for the programme. Next up would be the last vocal track of the album, "I Belong To You". This is quite an interesting track because this is has a fusion with the French style of music. Not to mention when Matt Bellamy starts singing in French afterthat..haha. I wonder if this is a romanticised depiction of the French World War II resistance fighters where they are famously known as just The Resistance. Btw, this song is gonna be used for the new Twilight movie, New Moon. It's the second time where Muse's song is used in that series because it seems that the author Stephanie Meyer is a big fan of Muse.

Aha..now comes the epic part - Exogenesis Symphony Parts 1,2 and 3. This massive collaboration is insane. 15 minutes of pure genius. Muse actually gathered a symphony band to play together with them. I can tell that even if someone were to hate all the other songs in the whole album, they cannot deny that the last 15 minutes of the album is just fantastic. And I know the Europeans are liking it alot because it's their style of music..haha. Not sure about the Americans though. =p One aspect that I enjoyed about The Resistance is the use of some really nice classical piano techniques and it gives the album an excellent top-up.

Overall, I like all the songs in The Resistance, with the exception of Undisclosed Desires. I think it's a job well done by Muse. More importantly, it's time to look forward to all the new creativity and spontaneous acts that they are gonna put into their Resistance tour. It's looking good at their homecoming gig at Teignmouth Devon and the excellent performance at the MTV VMAs. I love the solo that Matt puts at the end of Uprising..haha. I really hope they could add on more riffs on the other songs, especially Unnatural Selection! Mhmmmmm...I'm wondering whether they would consider coming back to KL for another round of tour. Please do consider about it Matt! xD