Niki N. Phaser

…suffice to say that Muse were never “the cool band to like right now”, they never made trendy music but managed in the decade since their first album’s (Showbiz) release to become an important name in modern rock history. Maybe it’s because, unlike, for example, the current army of new bands with the same haircut and the same music, Muse became a band because they had a musical vision they needed to express and not just to be cooler than the other kids from their high school. And, in the future, when they’ll close the books, The Resistance will be a chapter that holds its piece to Origin of Symmetry or Absolution.

The Resistance is the way an album should be: it’s an evolution of a sound, which means it’s something new but coming from the same seed as the previous Muse albums. From all the new tracks, Unnatural Selection is probably the Musest of them all and the rockiest of them all, reminding us of Hyper Music or Stockholm Syndrome, but, hey, we all know that Chris Wolstenholme is an avid (short-haired) headbanger in live performances. He needed some soundtrack for that. Also, MK Ultra is a very nice piece of urgent rock, based on a typical Muse riff. If you liked Map of the Problematique you’ll go for this one, too. In fact, the entire album has enough Muse in it to satisfy the fans, whether it is the Starlight-like catchy piano hook from Resistance, the Supermassive Black Hole-like temperate beat of Undisclosed Desires or the ever present loud, but melancholic vocals of Matt Bellamy. Of course.

But for every Muse-like element present in the tracklisting, there is also something new, an influence or a direction. I mean, you can almost swear they hired Freddy Mercury to do backing vocals on United States of Eurasia and the Queen wind doesn’t stop here, considering some of the guitar work on Unnatural Selection or the solo from Guiding Light. And speaking of this anthemic track, which at parts sounds like a traditional tune from some Northern Sicily Grape Festival, you can’t help noticing some U2 delays and echoes on those guitars, very appropriate, considering the two bands are touring together, as we speak (23 September – 14 October, 2009). Beyond the obvious prog rock extremes, one can call this Muse’s most classical and symphonic album. Previous dabbles in this field take full form here, especially in the three-piece Exogenesis.

The first part, Overture remains a highlight of the album, being, one could say, the climax of what Muse have been working towards with tracks like Space Dementia, Sing for Absolution or Blackout. The Hans Zimmer-esque build-up, the atmospheric production on the less than intelligible vocals and the waves of emotions the track rides really make Exogenesis: Overture, (maybe just) for me, lovemaking music, like Sade or Barry White is for others… But, despite the buzz created by this massive Exogenesis (all of it), the ‘real jewel of the album’ title must go to Undisclosed Desires. A perfect synth-pop-rock song, this is definitely single material on an otherwise experimental album. It might not fit perfectly with epics like Uprising or Resistance or pretty much everything else (it’s one of the few songs where the characters are not “you and I” and “THEM”), but it will surely claim its place among Muse’s greatest hits. It does fit with its overall romantic theme, the ‘resistence’ from the title of the album being love itself. In fact, the entire thing could make a great soundtrack for some SF romance set in a futuristic version of the 1930′s… Just in case Terry Gilliam is reading…

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