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Clunge

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Posts posted by Clunge

  1. Just looking at the summer tour and couple of recent sets, what I always thought would happen has now finally happened, and that's Muse's first three albums have been distilled down to just two songs – Plug In Baby and Hysteria. They are, at least, undoubtedly the two best, most complete songs they've ever written, although I doubt they'd go down as anyone here's two all-time favourites.

    I really hope we get a bit more variety this tour. The ST tour was pretty dire in that respect.

  2. 5 hours ago, kueller said:

    At under 40 minutes I'm thinking about how I've been on this damn site for almost a decade seeing posts about the benefits of shorter records. I think those were from Clunge? And here they are with a quick and punchy record. I think I'd get tired if it was 50 minutes.

    Aye. I always thought the old vinyl format, max 40 mins – 20 per side – made for a brilliant template where you had to think carefully about constructing an album. This fits that mould well with WOTP through Ghosts and then Halloween through WAFF.

    • Like 4
  3. That last point is a really good one – I think this would have made a great self-titled album. It perhaps would have taken the sting out of the slightly silly grand concept of it all. And the more coherent genre-spanning would have lent itself to a self-title.

    Glad to see lots of people liking Euphoria. I think it's an absolute blast. But it got me thinking – yes, it is in the mould of Get Up And Fight (this one was a miss for me) and Revolt (more of a hit but not perfect by any means) but lest we forget... Crying Shame? That dates to 2004 and looking back now is very much in a similar mould.

    Same goes for Neutron Star Collision, maybe In Your World as well. If Muse's first album had featured Crying Shame, Revolt, Get Up And Fight, Euphoria, Neutron Star Collision, TOADA and In Your World, some of these songs would have been looked on much more favourably.

    • Like 1
  4. Still loving this, so many little flourishes I like. The minor outro to Liberation sets the tone so well for WSD. Also, the descending runs on keys/guitar in Halloween and Euphoria add so much. Euphoria has to be the most 'fun' song Muse have done in years. The whole album holds together really well, with a clear 'A side' and 'B side'. Ghosts is about as well positioned as it could have been, I think. Halloween to the end of the album is an absolute blast.

  5. I said this with Revolt, but if Euphoria had been on Showbiz, it would be a massive massive fan favourite.

    Don't agree re the drums. I think they sound superb on this album. Really tight, clean, varied, bright – and big. This is a great 'instrument' album. Nearly every song is strongly 'instrument'-led, i.e. led. by guitar, piano or vocals. The synths and frills are all still there, but they take more of a back seat.

    Loving this more with every listen. I think Compliance will eventually be my least favourite, but it's still good.

    • Like 1
  6. There’s nothing on it I outright dislike, which is more than can be said for every album since Absolution.

    So many great stand out moments. I already loved WOTP, WSD and KOBK, and I don’t have any issues with Compliance.

    Going through - Liberation is nowhere near the complete Queen cheeseout I expected. I like the refrains, and the Queeny flashes are just that, flashes. I quite like how it eschews a big chorus.

    Ghosts is definitely the low point for me after a few listens, but there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s sweet, poignant and does offer a bit of mid-album respite.

    Halloween - everything ST SHOULD have been. Brilliantly bonkers, so catchy, best solo for ages, just a ripper. Calling it now - the mini Europe tour finishes just before Halloween. Who’s ready for a Muse Halloween show? Costumes, special set, creepy stage show, actors, etc. I’d love that.

    Verona is wonderfully blissed out. Like the lyrics too. Those descending synthy scales though… Stranger Things intro music anyone?

    Euphoria - Muse’s best pop rock song for a while. I unashamedly love Revolt and this takes that vibe to new heights. Great chorus and solo.

    And finally, WAFF. It’s just bonkers. I grinned like a lunatic throughout. Matt screaming ‘Fuck Off!’ repeatedly is a new Muse Lol highlight.

    I LOVE how massive the drums are on this album, every song is so percussive. Brilliant bass too. Reminds me of Prince and Michael Jackson at times.

    • Like 5
  7. I much rather bands didn't attempt to capture the studio version/sound live – that's not why I go to gigs. The studio lets you do anything, layer it up with 80 different takes and embellishments, that's fine – that's the point of being in the studio, even more so these days when you can just add infinite tracks in ProTools and don't have to worry about bouncing things down like The Beatles did.

    Live should then be about making that work live, not 100% faithfully recreating it. Pare it all back to the core components of the song. Get extra musicians in if you want / need, but the last thing I want are robotic recreations of studio versions. The perfect example being how Matt used to (perhaps still does) uses a backing track for the harmonics in the Stockholm Syndrome intro. It's just complete unnecessary. Same as when Chris used a backing track for the Time Is Running Out bassline (yes, I know he plays over the top of it, but he's since proved it wasn't necessary in the first place).

    Also, Muse's songs really aren't all that complex or technical – either to actually play or recreate sonically. It's why I still find the rigidity of their sets quite irritating. Songs like Muscle Museum, Uno, Hyper Music, Dead Star, MK Ultra, The Handler, Reapers, etc, could easily be rotated in and out without issue is they thrashed them out in a rehearsal room on tour for an hour or so. Metallica manage this and their songs are infinitely more complex. Radiohead typically rehearse 60-70 songs per tour and rotate most of them. Pearl Jam's setlists are bananas. Pixies often manage 40 songs in a single set, more than Muse might rotate in four or five years. The Cure sometimes manage nearly that. Horses for courses perhaps, but Muse don't have a lot of excuses here.

  8. I suppose it depends if we're talking 'heaviest' in terms of sound/production, or 'heaviest' in terms of some of the concepts/tropes in the song. Matt seems to place himself in the latter camp going by the notes that came with KOBK (referring to it as metal, talking about growls, double bass pedals, etc). For me, I lean more towards the former in so much as KOBK is clearly nowhere near as 'heavy' as say Dead Star in its recorded form.

    I maintain that Drones did an excellent job of capturing Muse's more live sound on record. Still think it's a great album, the first two-thirds of it at least.

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