Muse - The United States of Eurasia

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Just bought the album today.

It'll be disappointing if I don't like it cos I'm a lover of the other four albums - 'specially Absolution and Showbiz.

Anyway, listening to it now.

1. Uprising hasn't sold me very well so far.

2. Resistance - Woah...Queen. Nice chorus though. Actually VERY good chorus. More of a feel of their Absolution work.

3. Undisclosed Desires - Starts like some kind of RnB track. Expecting some kind of female sex rnb groan...Ewwww it continues like an RnB track with weak vocal strength. This is just WEIRD to hear from Muse. Even got whispering vocals behind the vocal track. Eeep. Parts are maybe like a budget New Order or Erasure or something...

4. United States of Eurasia - Yep, rock opera but we all knew that already. Having said that, after the last song it feels more epic and enjoyable.

5. Guiding Light - The first beats are straight from Terminator Bellamy fancies himself as Freddie Mercury with a bit of a voice crack and warble there. The track's ok though. Some nice industrial sounds interspersed then Brian May launches into a screechy guitar solo. Another long outro.

6. Unnatural Selection - Ahh more like it. Church organ and distorted vocals to start us off. Some decent Muse-ish guitars and more distorted vocals. In ways this has some of their earlier sound like Muscle Museum mixed into it. I like it although at points of his singing the rhythm almost sounds like Arctic Monkeys. Some psychadelia thrown into the middle there.

7. MK Ultra - Another return to Absolution mmm and then some good synth and guitars. Not bad this one. Raging guitars and bird song layered together at the end and we're outta there.

8. I Belong To You - Plinky pub piano work bit like from "Ruby" by Kaiser Chiefs. After 2 minutes goes into the rolling piano and Bellamy's voice much like the one song every album. Then out into rock opera but almost like tongue-in-cheek then into the strings and back to the piano and voice...Then back into the Kaiser Chief/Madness plinkyplonky/Clarinet(?) Bit of a musical merry-go-round that one. Won't get released but fun track.

9. Exogenesis 1 (Overture) - Classical piece for a minute and a half then a very nice drum beat and Bellamy warble. Good though. Like the end of some epic movie piece. Then Brian May returns for a bit and nearly ruins it but back to the building....overture I guess...

10. Exogenesis 2 (Cross-Pollination) - Ugh I recognise the start of this from somewhere else with the piano. Can't place it though....Then two minutes in and it goes into rock opera again. Bit Flash Gordon....Back to the piano. S'alright that.

11. Exogenesis 3 (Redemption) - Quiet strings before the now expected 2 minute mark when Bellamy rolls in. Nice though. Good orchestral piece. Feels right for the end. Gentle finish. Fade to black.

So yeah, it's pretty much continuous throughout. A lot of the tracks just seem like "phases" of the overall picture meaning that cutting in and out to listen to the odd track will be difficult except for a few.

To conclude: Must listen to it more. However it's very likely that I shall be skipping Undisclosed Desires...It just feels WRONG. It's not BAD bad, just doesn't go with the rest of the album in my opinion.

Best tracks?

Resistance

Unnatural Selection

MK Ultra

Then I Belong to You through to the three Exogenesis are pretty cool. The final three work well one after another.

[livid]

I'm a fan of both those albums too but The Resistance just isn't very good.

[supergrass]

I think this is the album where Muse have finally lost me. I loved most of Showbiz, all of Origin of Symmetry and nearly all of Absolution and Hullabulloo. While I'm pleased they're continuing to develop their music and not stick to one thing, it ultimately started going away from my tastes with Black Holes and Revelations.

I'm sure I'll see them live yet again somewhere along the road, and may have tickets for the next London show, but that'll be mainly for the "greatest hits" as opposed to the newer material.

[YI]

Best tracks?

Resistance

Unnatural Selection

MK Ultra

...I agree. Only songs I actually LIKE. Although the Kooks-y bridge in "Resistance" is fucking awful.

[METALMAN]

I will post the "review" I did here also because I am a knob

THE ONLY REVIEW OF MUSE'S NEW ALBUM THAT YOU WILL EVER NEED

Uprising sounds like that Battles song as Skummy said. It is also boring and too long.

Resistance turns into a Kooks song. It is also boring and too long.

Undisclosed Desires sounds like a Samantha Mumba song. Or Sonique? Remember her?

United States of Eurasia has a nice groove going on the in the verse. Pity the lyrics are dreadful (as are all of the lyrics on this album). Pity it also turns into over the top Queen wank. EURASIA...SHA...SHA...SHA. Pathetic. Oh and they have kindly spliced a little sonata on the end of it. Thanks Muse. I mean when I want to listen to a good sonata I get one from the big four - Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin...Bellamy.

Guiding Light sounds like Enter Shikari. Not that bad. Not that good at least. Second best song on the album. Though that's not saying much.

Unnatural Selection only goes and rips off Gay Bar. It is also boring and too long.

Mk Ultra is classic Muse THEY'RE GOING TO GET US AND THEY'RE BREAKING THROUGH. Also boring and too long. Yes, four minutes is far too long for such an awful song.

I Belong To You sounds like Everyone's At It by Lily Allen. Nice little groove again, but it is ripped off of Lily. Adds the clarinet solo from "Alfie" for good measure. Best song on the album, with a little help from Lily Allen. Next, Muse do a Green Day by putting two totally different songs on the same track. This one is not-at-all-pretentiously titled "Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix" (Alternatively titled "Bellamy Tries His Luck On Babelfish"). It is also really shit. Bellamy doing his MY SCROTUM IS LOCKED IN A VICE thing.

Then three part "Symphony". As I said with the sonata, if I want to hear a good symphony I don't go for Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner. None of that old hat. I listen to Bellamy. Oh wait no. It's shit. It is also boring and too long.

So yeah it's shit overall. I wash my hair and go outdoors far too much to be the sort of person that would enjoy this album. Unfortunately I know that a lot of people are going to start hailing Matt Bellamy as the foremost composer of our era or whatever because of this "symphony". Which is a load of shit.

Having said that - I really really really like the second verse of United States of Eurasia, provided I don't pay attention to the lyrics. It's absolutely fantastic right up to the "Can Be Only One" bit, after which it just becomes shit again.

Having said that, my favourite songs are probably:

I Belong To You

Resistance (start)

United States of Eurasia (second verse may well be one of my favourite musical moments of the year)

[Kaney]

I didn't expect it to be on par with Mozart or Beethoven, and I kinda don't know why anyone would.

It's not on par with Origin of Symmetry, but not much is. I like it for what it is, but then I didn't expect it to revolutionise the industry or anything.

[METALMAN]

Exactly. Though a couple of my friends are total Muse fanatics who worship Matt Bellamy so I've been getting a lot of that. >_>

[Crybaby Bunting]

I've listened to it twice through and I still can't name more than 3 songs that I'd listen to again, and even that's a struggle.

It's... both utterly pretentious but lacking content. If this was the new Panic at the Disco everyone and their mother would complain that this is ruining the music industry, yet as it by the guys who made OoS reviews are ranging from 'above meh' to 'STROKE OF GENIUS'

Yes we didn't expect it to revolutionise the music industry, but why does it seem like a political statement of "waah the music industry/politics sucks"?

It's a Matt Bellamy solo album, seriously. It's got no memorable basslines nor memorable drumming, it's just vocals, piano and guitar. Now which member of Muse specialises in those three? ¬_¬

It's just like The Eraser wouldn't have worked if it was under the Radiohead name, if this was released under the Matt Bellamy name then it'd be slightly different because you could take it as a solo project and that'd be that. This is MUSE, a band who specialises in their own style of space rock playing something they're not familiar with and failing.

In retrospect I'm kinda glad that I pulled out of the pre-order the second I heard the previews.

[DFF]

I've got to say that, after 3 or 4 plays through now, that I actually really like it. I kind of guessed the direction the sound was going from the 30 seconds clips/interviews/etc., and I really don't have a problem with it. I'm unsure on Undisclosed Desires, but most of the rest is pretty good - especially Exogenisis.

[Robsturgh]

Its thier worst album I'd say, not by a great distance, but noticably so. That's not saying its bad though, its got some really good tracks, "Resistance" and "Unnatural Selection" being my favorites, but good god WHAT is Undisclosed Desires? WHY THE FUCK is there a clarinet solo in I Belong To You?

I understand this is a band that likes to push boundries and try new things, but some tracks come across as pretty over produced and with WAY too much synth. This being said I do like Exogenesis quite a bit, but it was WAY overhyped by Bellamy over the past years "ITS A FUCKING 13 MINUTE OPUS". Well, yeah ok, its alright. Which kinda sums up my whole thoughts for the album. Its alright. But its not par for the course.

[SeanDMan]

The song that everyone linked to at first was kind of wank, but how can anyone dislike a video with rampaging, feral gigantic teddy bears?

Don't want to double post in a dead thread, so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTreXUxDlfw.

Also, what do you think is more likely to make you look like a jackass, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fIFnFUyMnI, or asking Muse to lipsync?

Edited September 30, 2009 by SeanDMan