He seems to suggest that Uprising does indeed reflect a sentiment he looks different at now. Not sure if that means he should drop it then, but it does mean I was right to dislike it . “It’s like a populist parody, almost the antithesis ,” Matt says. “Whereas ‘Uprising’ was almost populist but taking it seriously, ‘Will Of The People’ is almost, ‘Do we know that we’re stupid now? Do we know how silly this sounds and looks?’ Inside of me, there’s always been this little bit of a conflict between the desire for direct democracy and a bit more actual power to the people, but then at the same time realising that sometimes the people can be mad…

After reading the NME article in which Matt finally does get explicit about his politics and is directly asked about the seemingly antivaxx and dark right culture war sentiments expressed on the new album, I think we can put a lot of this ongoing discussion to rest. Surprisingly, he’s not being vague and he’s not avoiding the potential alienation of a part of the fan base by being explicit about his views this time. More surprisingly, the new songs are apparently trying to say the exact opposite of what his lyrics sound like they’re saying. Will of the People is not a dumb song about righteous people reclaiming power, it’s a song mocking dumb people fighting the system against their own interest. Compliance is not antivaxx or even inspired by CoVid lockdowns. Liberation is not a Capitol Insurrectionist anthem, it’s inspired by BLM, etc. Of course one can still be critical of his choice of words (in the lyrics) and his failure to be more explicit about denouncing specific groups or sentiments, but perhaps it’s really just more clumsiness than an attempt to please a broad audience. He seemed generally surprised by the idea that his lyrics can be interpreted in a way he didn’t intend them to. His “extremes on both sides are bad” cliché is a bit of a cop out still as well, but the issues he’s explicit about match the left leaning libertarianism he’s expressed in the past, with only ‘communism’ being mentioned as an example of the left taking things too far. Either way, I can now sing along to the new songs without worrying that I’m endorsing things I don’t agree with.

Benefit of a show in daylight (well, sunset): much more footage of the Fourth Man.

Tuning in just in time for the glove. I really like that instrumental actually. Just not sure if tinkering with a super cool glove really works in front of such a large crowd.

Was there a happy birthday chant for Matt?

1. New Born 2. Sunburn 3. Take a Bow 4. AP 5. Algorithm 6. Uprising 7. Dead Inside (Great song, better than 5 and 6, but not a great opener for me.) 8. Supremacy 9. WOTP (Time will tell if it's a better opener in the context of the album. For now, I'm not a fan.)

Severance is where it’s at.

Yup, seems like Matt was watching tv during the lockdown and was ‘inspired’ by what he watched, both fiction and non-fiction. So which song will be about Tiger King?

It's their worst opener for sure, bumping Supremacy off that spot. I'm very curious how they justify the Will of the People chant's similarity to the beautiful people. It's not possible not a single band member or person involved in creating the album didn't notice the similarity. So either they asked permission, they consulted a music lawyer to make sure it was different enough, or they're gambling that they'll get away with it. It seems that about a fourth of the FB comments under the post with the song's video are jokes about copyright infringement. We all know Muse likes to "borrow", so this is nothing new. But jeeeezz has their source of 'inspiration' taken a dive with Manson. Rachmaninoff, Bach, Tchaikovski, RaTM, John Williams, Vangelis, Marilyn Manson. Speaking of borrowing, I just watched Squid Game for the first time and now I know where the WoTP mask and outfit inspiration came from. Though interestingly in that show it's the elites in power who mask up, not the oppressed.

They know it’s not a pleasant experience to visit this place. Maybe only when they’re in a masochistic mood.

If that’s indeed Matt then I’m glad he’s on Reddit and Twitter and not on the board. Because this place is so dead I feel that old grumps like me are overrepresented here, which makes this place even more negative and critical than it traditionally already was. But hey, Matt, we’re also engaged in discussing the topics you’re singing about, isn’t that what you wanted?

If it’s not instructions they still discourage them being filmed by not lighting the fourth man’s area. The RaR footage was very Matt focused indeed. But we got to see Chris singing his backup vocals, but not Dan’s. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think anyone is being wronged here, it’s just as a viewer it would be nice to not get the impression of a backing track and to see where some of the sounds are coming from.

Looks like Dan Lancaster will be Morgan 2.0 for the entire tour. It still feels odd to me that they don’t make announcements about their fourth stage member, or acknowledge them more during the shows. As with Morgan, it also looks like the band instruct camera crews not to feature Dan in concert footage, when he’s doing quite a bit of heavy lifting. Wouldn’t they look better if they showed Dan rather than give the impression they’re using backing tracks? Anyway, I love his backing vocals and energy already.

Apart from KoBK, how’s everyone liking the other WoTP songs live? Impressions from the RaR liverstream: I liked WoTP. The outfits, masks and Matt’s awkward butt-wiggling somehow worked for me and I got less of a Greenday vibe from it than from the studio version. It’s not ideal that the WoTP chant is pre-recorded. I wonder if they can get the crowd to sing it somehow. In fact, that could be massive as a bit of prepared audience participation. Won’t Stand Down isn’t really coming across for me. I never liked the verses and when it gets heavy I want them to act the part and go all Slipknot on stage. I don’t want Matt to blow out his voice on the screams, so it’s cool with me that it’s mostly a mic effect, but he should maybe pretend he’s screaming his lungs out for that bit. I want to feel the anger. Compliance is fun, but starts of a bit bare. Would be fun if it was more danceable right from the start.

Yeah, Dead Inside for Madness would help too. Dark Side is one of their best recent tracks, but I’m not sure they were able to do it justice live. I think live Pressure (which I don’t care for on the album) packs more punch. The Groove would be my ideal replacement for that one (as if). I wonder if they keep Thought Contagion because it fits the theme of the new album. If that’s the case, Animals would be a suitable replacement. Maybe not a festival favorite, but a fan favorite everywhere I look.

Just watched the whole thing. Great energy. I love Matt’s vocals, not sure if it’s on purpose, but it seemed like he was doing much more of his old vocal squeeze and less of the fauxperatics. MoTP sounded impeccable. Now if they’d get rid of the Drill instructor, the weird shit with the glove and swap out Thought Contagion with something else, they’d put on a perfect show.

I’ve been a bit of a grump about their new stuff, but I couldn’t fault KoBK if I tried. I listen a couple of times and I just couldn’t put my finger on what was so familiar about the riff. Was it a Muse song? Was it Rage Against the Machine? Until finally, it dawned on me: Right? Kind of, a little bit?

Ja, bizar. Gaan die stoelen dan van de vloer, of zijn er alleen zitplaatsen?

Yes, of course. But that is the arrogance of online ‘researchers’. They see any overlap with the nonsense they spread as confirmation of the nonsense they spread. They go: ‘Muse say ministry of truth!!1!! Red pill confirmed!!’, rather than: ‘George Orwell wrote 1984, a novel about propaganda and oppression in an authoritarian regime. Since its publication, 1984 is often referenced by opponents of real and perceived authoritarianism and propaganda. In response, propagandists themselves like to accuse their political opponents of Orwellian practices. Some recent examples of 1984 references are memes referring to the Biden administration’s efforts to curb online misinformation as the ‘Ministry of Truth’, and the band Muse referencing the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in their video accompanying the song ‘Will of the People’, which, like much of their work, expresses a generic sense of outrage against the ruling class.’

It’s funny how many people in America are unaware that online misinformation is a powerful tool parties in power use to alter your perception of reality. The baffling short-sightedness of then only labeling the effort to curb such misinformation as Orwellian is beyond me.

If you were to build a machine-learning algorithm to create Muse lyrics based on their back catalog then “Welcome to the desecration, baby” would definitely be the first line of output.

Ah yes, that makes sense too. A bit of 3D irony inception though, if he’s not also poking fun at his own unwillingness to take a stance.

Despite not really liking the direction they’re taking, I played WSD and Compliance on repeat for days as I do with every new Muse release. With this a one I’m not even tempted. I probably would have if it was the first single, but three songs in the uninspiredness is starting to wear on me.

I’m back! I couldn’t read the PM because now my duplicate account wasn’t recognized and I couldn’t log in. But it looks like things were fixed. Thanks!

We could be like redditors and try to keep the conversation going about absolutely nothing…