Well, what do we have here? You’d have thought the trio would have exhausted every possible musical combination after their last album, The Resistance, but yet again they’re back with even more colourful permutations. Despite straying into the very “un-Muse“ territories of love-song writing and dance music, they pull it off. ‘Follow Me’ contains the raw, to-the-point lyrics Matt Bellamy has taken a shine to lately and is backed up by a huge bass drop that’s akin to Chase and status. It’s all very grand and eerie but delivers knock-out punches that really seperate The 2nd Law from The Resistance.
Bellamy seems to have got his ideas out there more cleanly with as little musical compromise as possible. Take ‘Supremacy’, yes it’s got the classic Rage Against the Machine riffs, string sections and battle-ready sequences the other albums have, but it’s all delivered in a way that’s just way more epic than anything else. The hooks are plentiful too; most songs are catchy as hell! If you thought ‘Undisclosed Desires’ was “dancey”, then wait ‘till you hear ‘Panic Station’, a complete funk-pop groove that’s extremely hard not to bob your head to. Interestingly, Chris Wolstenholme also features much more on this album, having written and sang main vocals on ‘Save Me’ and ‘Liquid State’. These tracks seem to be overshadowed by the whole grandeur of the rest of the album.
It’s nice to see the band still have tricks up their sleeves – it’s a promising sign for the future that the band are still willing to explore music so thoroughly. If Muse can play it with “real” instruments like they say, then you have the ingredients for an amazing live show.
