Got the FLAC of it from the CD if you’re the kinda person to want that stuff

I think they’ll keep tradition and have it be an old live performance but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t come with some kind of wee tease involved. Love them to stitch a tiny audio clip onto the end or in a hidden link somewhere…

They do still play songs before release sometimes, just been very sparse since T2L. Only Reapers and Mercy (to a private audience) for Drones and then none for Sim. The album’ll definitely be out before the current festival dates. Just depends if/what they book earlier in the year, I’m definitely expecting some shows in the run up. Yeah, usually. After the mastering pic came out, I just saw them start up again with a bunch of “soon” / “very soon” / “Muse single soon 👀” posts that made me roll my eyes a bit.

Yeee Jan single and March release I reckon Gonna feel so foreign when things kick off and Muse…exist again?

permafucked m8 I had an email exchange with support as soon as I got it, explaining that it was seemingly a universal issue and was obviously present on the digital copies at first as well. Said I’d be happy to leave a refund if they knew anything about it being fixed in a later batch and they just said it’d be best to take the refund. Amazing cock up when you think about it. Proper up there in the Muse hierarchy

It’s been so weirdly silent, I hate it. You knew they’d been doing stuff but never any idea where along the timeline they could be. Now suddenly some noise and it feels like we’re almost done loading. Part of me likes it though. First time we’ve gone into a new Muse cycle with literally no idea of a direction/sound. If they’re mixing now and their stylist has just started new work…would a single as early as next month be crazy? Album by Feb/March? I’m defo expecting Psycho Tour 2 after the long layoff btw (though maybe not the same level of rarities). Oh, and an acoustic set in my back garden next week. edit: as if that Algorithm Squad account is still vague posting like they’re ITK after all this time, people called them out within the first 2 weeks of existing

Aleks von Korff (studio engineer) is currently mixing something for Muse in Dolby Atmos Cristina Acevendo (stylist) has just started working on stuff for them Customary Kirk ‘soon’ post, promptly (almost definitely on purpose) deleted

We’re BACK

Ugh don’t even I haven’t really consistently engaged anywhere about Muse for ages and I’ve slowly felt my info retrieving muscles atrophy. “They played x song 11 times between June and September of that year” has turned to “…did they play that on that tour?” I’m also constantly paranoid that something could be happening and I’ve no idea because idk how to stay in the loop these days 😭

*deeper breath* Unintended (+ pretty sure Falling Down was still in A for its revival, just shorter) Darkshines, Futurism Eternally Missed, Fury TAB, Exo-P (u ain’t wrong) MKU Revolt

Picked up my record today and only just realised Matt’s the shirtless bloke on the front cover lol We’ve finally reached CG shirtless Matt as album art, folks.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘less is more’ is never completely irrelevant, but has excess not always kinda been a big part of Muse’s pull? Don’t really understand the idea that a synth should only be used to back the instruments they’re more known for either, making it the primary instrument for a change seems like it’d be way more likely to result in something new. By the sounds of Matt’s current solo stuff and how he’s described the stuff he makes alone, I think there’s a decent chance he could make something quite different - more heady and less bombastic. With Muse, I do think ST was probably their ‘synth’ album tbh and it was a decent step up from what they’d dabbled with before but I’d like something that really went all in. You never know though, if they wanna avoid repeating themselves I can’t think of many other places they have left to go.

^ add Algorithm to this conversation also please I’ll be honest, in terms of compelling piano usage, I don’t think the balance has been that different between the 2 halves of their career. I’d like a deeper dive into synth stuff personally, feels like that has the most untapped potential.

They also say “the reissue is definitive” though, soooo I find it amazing that they point out New Born’s drums specifically as something that improved, when to me they stand out for exactly the opposite. Nah in all seriousness, I relistened to it all last night in super quality with headphones and honestly some of it is incredible, enough to make me a bit emotional even. Futurism is one of the best mixes I think I’ve ever heard, full stop. Hyper Music is comically blown out to fuck, there’s a weird hiss at the start of Bliss and a few songs have weak drums in spots but, other than that, the mixes themselves are great. Just wish they’d been able to hold back in terms of tampering with the original, it keeps songs like Space Dementia/CE/Micro Cuts from being my new go-to versions. Black Holes next with Futurism treatment and personally consult me with what to re-add or take away and I’ll cry. Edit: also, got a response to my support email, says they’re unaware of the Micro Cuts issue 🤨 doubt, but they say they’ve forwarded it higher for now

Literally spent the entire second half just repeating “go on Matt lad” at increasing volumes Shouldn’t really be a surprise that he can still achieve that in-studio tbf but I guess you get used to hearing it in a live environment so much that you think that’s all his voice can do. The last harmony was gorgeous as well, was wondering how he’d pull that off as the song went on.

I mentioned in my email from the off that I didn’t think sending new copies would solve anything since, by all accounts, it’s a universal problem with this pressing. Followed that up by asking if things would be fixed with a future pressing and if there was any idea when that might be, so we could get a copy then instead (either sent as a replacement or with refund money). Fingers crossed they’re working something out 🤞

Can’t tell how I feel about GL 😅 in theory, it’s gorgeous….but that’s just because I love Jeff Buckley and this *is* a Jeff Buckley impersonation in every way. Which I can’t tell if is a sweet ‘full circle’ type thing for Matt, or just kinda creepy. Needs some ponderin’. Fucking humongous respect for the vocals on TAB though.

Shame about the delay, was really looking forward to going in and picking it up on release day 💔 in other news, our Bellz has inevitably dipped into NFTs but I’m just glad it was at least for this and not Muse (though would absolutely not be shocked to see similar tomfoolery for LP9 either) if it was intentionally silly, I’d love it but, alas, I am doubtful and so my enjoyment must remain ironic also only like 30% of Drones isn’t quality, I’ll have less of that slander

Haven’t tested my pressing yet, but yeah the Micro Cuts thing seems to be standard. Personally really doubt that sending another copy now would be any different, imagine it’ll be the whole batch. How long it’ll be before another one, god knows. Guess people with the coloured variants are just stuck with that as well. I’ll test mine and also try emailing though. On the scale of Muse fuck ups, this is pretty up there. How does something that glaring make the final product?

It says #recordingsession sooooo? Thunderbirds are go?

Nah, Black Holes in particular is practically begging for this treatment imo. Such a messy and uber compressed record that would really benefit from a more modern, open clarity. It’s always a risk to start adding in extra stems that were originally cut though, I agree. But I’d absolutely foam at the mouth for a faithful remix. (…though I wouldn’t mind dancing with the devil and bringing back the piano for Hoodoo’s intro and outro) Is this available on CD? I’ve only seen vinyl.

Though, speaking of Abso and Black Holes re-releases, what would people want? I’m assuming off the bat that AP’s strings would be restored, which I wouldn’t be against. Maybe combine the album and guitar mix of B&H too. If there are recordings of the early Soldier’s Poem and Endessly versions, they’d be nice. With Black Holes, all I can think off is including some of the Miraval material.

You think we’ll get the first single nearly a year before the album releases? :S

Obviously Muse have always been an over-the-top band, it’s one of their biggest draws, but I don’t think there’s much room for denying that they have still lost some sense of restraint and fallen deeper into the tunnel-vision “more = better” mindset over the years. You can’t really get a more textbook example than these XX interviews. 2001 Muse openly admitted to cutting elements because they were too much and didn’t fit the song or album, 2021 Muse can’t fathom why they weren’t used and throws everything back on without question. Similarly, even by Black Holes, they were still rejecting songs like Soaked for sounding too cheesy and going too far, then by the next record that became their standard piano ballad. Drones was relatively stripped back in comparison to its surrounding albums but that’s largely because they went out of their way to hire a strict producer in Mutt. When they have more control, like normal, you get a TR, T2L or Sim Theory. That’s not inherently a bad thing for me, I still love them like I’ve said (well, one of those 3 at least). But they have changed and their more modern mindset doesn’t mesh well with something like Origin’s charm at all, and it ends up being really telling is all I’m saying. Not just in the additions, but the mixing in general imo.

Yeah, honestly this whole vibe made me chuckle a fair few times throughout. I still love Muse now, Sim Theory’s my 4th favourite record, but I guess we do now have an answer to the old hyposthesis of “how would x album sound if Modern Muse made it?” and it’s pretty on-point. Obviously the whole ‘less is more’ being a non-existent concept is a big part of that (I mean, who wouldn’t have bet their house on every shred of unused strings coming back with extreme prejudice?) but even just in terms of the overall mix as well. After hearing CE, I thought it was gonna be a lot worse though ngl. In the end, it’s not excruciating and I’m not mad it exists. Some people are very keen for it and fair play to them but I don’t think this will generally be taken in as the ‘intended’/definitive version of Origin by any means. There are a few nice additions to hear, even if not all of them actually work, and the odd song is mostly better off. It’s just a shame that even those (bar Screenager and maybe Bliss) also have something that frustratingly drags them back, for me at least. Really doubt it tbh, pretty sure they always planned 2021 to be an album recording year and they seemed pretty definitive about the 2011 shows. Matt also kinda waved the idea off when he was asked about it in an interview a while ago iirc. It’s something a lot of people started to talk about again coming up to this year but I never really liked the idea at all tbh, for a bunch of reasons. They already did it with all the bells and whistles at L+R 2011, around Matt’s peak vocally, so anything else would inevitably be a step down. It’d also set a pretty awkward precedent to have only celebrated 1 album’s anniversary, and then to have played it in full each decade since release. Like, do they just keep playing Origin every 10 years until they retire? Then there’s the fact that, after the 2011 shows, they purposefully didn’t do any other anniversary shows that decade because they didn’t want people to start expecting it of them - so if that happened again, I’d rather at least see a new anniversary than an old one repeated. I get that I’m speaking from the POV of someone who was around for and lucky enough to see the 2011 show though, if I hadn’t I’d almost certainly be begging for it as well. But, trying to be objective, it’s best that people move on and the band leave those shows to remain special imo. #BlackHoles2026 bayBEE