Updated 14.55 | Published 14.18
ALBUM After a fairly long hiatus, Muse prove that they are still a force to be reckoned with.
“The Wow! signal” is a mostly strong sign of life from an ambitious act that refuses to slow down.
Muse
The Wow! Signal
Warner
ROCK In a live context is Muse often a hit. A confident and self-evident arena act with poise and great splendor. Not even technical mess and wild winds prevented the British trio from great deeds the gig at Sthlm Fields in Stockholm last year.
But on record, the rock band tends, since quite a long time ago, to get lost in the maddening maze of pompous prog rock, languishing power pop, melodious metal and high-trotting themes. 2018’s “Simulation theory” was a shaky edm-sorry with a crusty AI focus, while the sequel “Will of the people” was an alternately tumultuous, alternately incoherent orgy in Orwellian social dystopias. The group hasn’t released anything solid and downright good-sounding since 2009’s “The resistance”.
“The Wow! signal” raises its eyes to the sky.
Space and its mysteries have long fascinated the frontman Matt Bellamyand on Muse’s tenth album in a row, an interesting science fiction drama about, among other things, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence unfolds. The album title refers to the mysterious radio signal detected on August 15, 1977 at Ohio State University, which was believed to be from extraterrestrial beings.
Opening “The dark forest” is immediately based on the hypothesis that technologically advanced civilizations deliberately hide their presence to protect themselves from potential threats.
Musically, the song is a prime example of Muse maximalism: galloping beats, lush guitars, strings signed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra and an occult chorus taken from Ghosts “Year zero”. The excesses elevate the song to the skies, far beyond the exosphere.
It’s a grand start that simultaneously frames the album’s purpose and overall theme.
“Launch a pulse out into the abyss, reach out a hand to the lonely,” Bellamy proclaims.
At the same time, Muse’s most personal album is a long time coming. Bellamy’s private life, and especially the break-up with his wife Elle Evansoften hide behind metaphors and similes.
In “Space Debris,” a tender ballad that grows in strength with each verse, Bellamy likens his stormy relationship with his ex-wife to broken satellites that have fallen out of orbit and are breaking down into space junk.
One hauntingly beautiful phrase in particular stands out:
“Love like this can’t age with grace / It burns and dims in a cold and vast empty space.”
There is also reason to believe that even “Cryogen”, who flirts uncontrollably with “Plug in baby”, is the result of a broken heart and that it is the ex-wife who is compared to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is known for its extremely chilled climate. Bellamy’s seductive falsetto vocals seem tinged with sadness and pain in the divorce sequences.
Musically, Muse travels in the usual order through time and space. The act stops in a number of different decades and genres, from funky 70s diso with Daft Punk-vibes (“Nightshift superstar”) to ultra-modern Rammstein-mangel (“The sickness in you & I”) via an unexpectedly beautiful collaboration with the pop star Ellie Goulding (“Hush”). 80s-scented “Hexagons”, the disc’s undeniable highlight along with “The dark forest”, instead brings to mind “Knights of Cydonia” and the Swedish-produced action short film “King fury”.
The producer Dan Lancasterwho have been touring with Muse since 2022 and also packaged the British metalcore act Bring Me The Horizons contemporary sound, has done a brilliant job of weaving together all the widely different influences; “The Wow! signal” is without a doubt the trio’s most cohesive and powerful record in many years. And with all certainty, the album will grow stronger over time.
At the same time, I wish that Muse and Lancaster tightened the reins a bit, scrapped the songs that fly away to far too peripheral latitudes. Like the aforementioned “Nightshift superstar”, an abomination I’d be more than happy to send far into space never to return.
BEST TRACKS: “Hexagons” and “The dark forest”.
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