It's a shame your friends are so put off by Matt's voice -- there's so much more to Muse than vocals. I suppose mainstream audiences are accustomed to relying a lot on vocals to enjoy a song, and usually have a hard time accepting falsetto vocals. Especially the American mainstream audience because Muse seems to be extremely popular everywhere else! I'm thinking it's because Americans are so absorbed in having the most masculine of males and the most feminine of females dominate its pop culture.

But anyway, before this turns into a sociology discussion... maybe try playing a Muse song that doesn't have as much falsetto in it and see what your friends say? For some reason, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" comes to mind. He sounds pretty sexy in that song, and it's a familiar tune as well.

Yeah, I found that iMac/iTunes visualizer ad not too long ago on YouTube! I vaguely remember seeing that ad when it originally aired... I guess that's why "Sunburn" sounded familiar.

I live out in Waianae, so spot-on with the rural area guess! The unexpected fireworks last night was thoroughly annoying. I yelled out my window, like that would've done any good! I'm a bit far from the road for them to hear me! And I can't believe people would have a surplus of fireworks, especially illegal ones. Shouldn't they be saving their money for more important things? That's another thing that annoys me.

I asked my sister about her ex singing along with Muse in the car and she said he was a Muse listener. So turns out it wasn't out of dislike of the band.