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Muse new album 20221/12/2024 ‘Ghosts (How Can I Move On)’ name-drops far-right conspiracy theories like “the great reset”, while ‘Verona’ is an anti-masker’s wet dream with lines like “ Can we kiss, contagion on our lips? Well, I don’t care, We can touch and feel forbidden bliss, They can’t stop us now…“. Tracks like ‘Compliance’ and ‘Liberation’ sound like something straight out of the mouthpiece of a MAGA cultist, barely managing not to say anything too overt, but by the time Muse hit the album’s midpoint all semblance of decency and tact has faded. The final product is worse than expected however, trading their usual play-both-sides vagaries for overt dog whistles. We saw much the same calibre of misguided, brainwashed wazzocks attempt an armed insurrection in the States to try and overturn a democratic election to keep a tin-pot dictator in power.Īs soon as Muse revealed details about their new album, with tracks titled things like ‘Will Of The People’ and ‘Compliance’, my reaction like most rational people was “bloody hell, read the room!”. We’ve seen a global pandemic bring the world to its knees, with deranged anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers frustrating calls for common sense and common courtesy at every turn and endangering those around them. The issue is, the world has become a very different place since Muse last released an album. (In fact, the new record’s closing track ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’ is pretty indicative of their usual level of subtlety and nuance). Essentially boiling down simply to “fuck the government, no one tells me what to do!”. A constant vocal tirade against a nebulous “Them” and the ills they inflict upon the world, without ever pinning down who “they” are or what heinous crimes they’ve committed. Their political themes somehow managing to be both as subtle as a sledgehammer while also being almost aggressively vague. Lyrics have always been a sticking point for Muse. An album whose mere existence makes the world a slightly worse place to be, and to sit idly by and not acknowledge that fact just didn’t sit right with me. This album however is the rare exception. Why bother wasting my time and energy listening to and writing about a terrible album, when I’m already struggling to find the time to cover the overwhelming deluge of new music releasing every week? There’s plenty of music to choose from, you’re not forced to listen to terrible albums, generally you can just ignore them and let you life be better for it. This isn’t Pitchfork, I don’t delight in tearing bands to pieces. The rare times you will find a negative review on this site they will generally come from a place of love, of knowing an act can do better and wanting them to realise their full potential. Will Of The People takes the record as the site’s new lowest rated album, and it’s a record that I dearly hope isn’t broken any time soon.
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