Review: Muse - The Resistance

Muse used to be a fairly underground band.  Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution were very hip albums to have even heard of, let alone be familiar with; they were an automatic bastion to a person’s Cool Music I’m Into That No One Else Has Heard Of quotient.  They were getting lumped in with Coldplay as Radiohead-wannabes by non-believers - probably because of their British origin more than any actual musical resemblance to either band.  They were darlings of the critics and their visibility was still on the rise.  Somewhere in the last few years, however, Muse went from being a promising up-and-coming group of musicians to being one of the biggest bands in the world.  Maybe it was playing to sellout crowds at Wembley - one of the biggest stadiums in the world - in a pair of gigs documented in their HAARP DVD/CD release.  Or maybe it was their inclusion in the Twilight soundtrack, making them fixtures in the musical accompaniment to millions of teenage girls’ lives.  Whatever the cause, Muse is definitely not an underground band anymore.  They’re huge.  And if The Resistance is any indication, they know it, and you’d better damn well recognize it too.

The album starts off with the fairly straightforward “Uprising,” a classic Muse track which serves as a cover for the amount of grandiose musical statements to come later.  The simple guitar-bass-drums-vocals approach to this first track (notwithstanding a few requisite synth fills - after all, this is Muse we’re talking about) is a somewhat deceptive way to kick off the album - after this point, the band starts pulling out one over-the-top idea after another, resulting in tracks as wide-ranging as the Depeche-Mode-influenced dance grooves found in “Undisclosed Desires” and the rock-opera-worthy, Queen-worshipping “United States Of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage),” the latter complete with full orchestral accompaniment.  Many of these ideas work, especially when the band indulges its classical side: the album ends with a three-track piece titled “Exogenesis: Symphony” which also features an orchestra, and makes for a very satisfying conclusion to all the craziness and genre-jumping.  In fact, the “Exogenesis” suite is so good that much of the rest of the album seems just okay by comparison.  The scattershot approach to genre and influence works against the band here; many of these tracks, while enjoyable on their own, simply can’t stand up next to one another and create a viable whole.  One of the other main drawbacks of the album is that, when the band simplifies their approach as on “Uprising” and a few other tracks, they seem to go on autopilot, as if their creative energy was expended on the more out-there tracks.  Overall, though, The Resistance is a good album, and what it lacks in cohesiveness is almost made up for by how much fun it is to listen to.  Only a band with the confidence of knowing they’re one of the biggest acts in the world would dare create music this bombastic and over-the-top; if they focus their confidence on a more unified vision, they may yet create another truly fantastic album.  Until then, though, The Resistance should be enough to tide their new-found legions of screaming fans over.

Rating: 3/5

Standout Tracks:
“Exogenesis: Symphony” (Parts 1-3)
“United States Of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)”
“Undisclosed Desires”

Release Date: September 14, 2009