Muse - The Resistance

An album with such a heavy influence in classical music is always going to be taken seriously, which Muse have demonstrated very well in 'Origin of Symmetry' and 'Absolution', but unlike those albums 'The Resistance' falls short, and I repeat, VERY short.

'Uprising' is the lead single from 'The Resistance' and unlike most lead singles from Muse, this one here sounds a very half hearted attempt at what Matt Bellamy described as 'A hard rock take on Goldfrapp'... Hmm I don't think so Matt, this sounds more like a repetitive chorus repeated once to much which gives us the thought of 'Shut the fuck up' after the first two minutes, never mind a dragged out five minutes of it. After 'Uprising' we are taken into a slightly beautiful song called 'Resistance' which does have it's moments of brilliance, especially with the jittery piano intro and the hard hitting chorus which is Muse at their best, but, they could have done without the almost cheesy moments of 'We Could Be Wrong, Could Be Wrong' and that part alone is bound to give you a love/hate relationship with this song.

Moving on to 'United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)' and this is a sorry and foolish attempt at Queen, which you get a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' feel from it, before entering a groovy and hard hitting piano bridge which takes references from Middle Eastern culture. After all that has passed, we enter a very nice calming and soothing piano solo with the added orchestra of violins and strings in places, which doesn't save the scare of the first four minutes of terrible attempts at Queen, but it does gave you a relief of some sort. 'Guiding Light' is definitely one of the albums high points, Matt Bellamy's vocals are beautiful and reassuring as he sings 'You're My Guiding Light, When There's No Guiding Light Left', even though the solo again rings out more Queen-esque styles but Matt's vocals alone in this song is a complete saviour.

We find ourselves indulged in 'Unnatural Selection' which is another hard hitting heavy Muse at their best, but here comes the snag, the main riff sounds HEAVILY like the dominating and boulder crushing riff that's in 'New Born', now there's nothing wrong with that if your just wanting heavy and catchy riffs to dance to or whatever, but for music enthusiasts and hardcore Muse fans, this is sure to annoy them and along with that seven minutes of mediocrity we don't want more Queen, and we got more of them at the vocal crescendo at the end which takes it's sorrows from 'Bohemian Rhapsody' yet again.

To the high points of the album, which lack few and far between, one of them however would be 'MK Ultra' which has a driving bass line leading the horde just like the songs of 'Origin of Symmetry' did. 'MK Ultra' proves itself in many forms, it's again, Muse at their best, has the calming start and somehow, out of no where comes to the blasting fire power the band has severely lacked on 'The Resistance' with a gracious nod again to 'New Born' but not as heavily replicated as 'Unnatural Selection'.

The final point in the album to be made is in 'Exogenesis', which is something Matt said he has been working on, on a long time. 'Exogenesis' runs for a total of thirteen minutes plus. The 'Symphony' is divided into three parts with part one being 'Overture' and this is swallowed in the darkness of an orchestrated chill of violins and more strings and Matt's restrained guitar pulling out a gentle but grinding solo and sings melodically but quietly to the gruesomely exceptional music behind him. Part two 'Cross-Pollination' starts of with a fast paced piano intro, but slows down to Matt's low and fierce vocal lines, but we somehow find ourselves racing in tempo with a guitar riff building intensity, and flickering the sharp solo before the whirlwind come down of the piano riff that the song started out with. Finally, part three enters into something that's a little more upbeat in comparison to 'Cross-Pollination'. 'Redemption' is probably the most beautiful piano ballad Matt Bellamy has came up with, it's slow but uniquely uplifting. Again, the violin's come in again and add it's bit of genius to Matt's unique ballad and just to complete this Symphony, Matt's hurried and low vocals just bring up the mood a little more before the outro consisting of the piano riff that was used as the intro and the slow in and out use of the violins.

Muse's fifth album has not raised any eyebrows, mainly around music critics and am sure hardcore Muse fans would be slightly disappointed with this effort. 'The Resistance' does have it's high points in 'MK Ultra' and the entire Symphony of 'Exogenesis' which would definitely be considered a masterpiece amongst the more classical sides of Muse fans. Although at to many parts in the album, they have uplifted roots from Queen and failed to pull it of and used riffs from their previous songs that have just been meddled around with to achieve some effect that's just not happened. 'The Resistance' is not a serious disaster overall, but very mediocre for a band with the heavy, heavy amount of talent that Muse has and let's hope that the next time, is a little less Queen and a lot more Muse hopefully.

2½ / 5


Linus Broadbent.