Mmmmmmm, I'm liking the orange desert, it reminds me of the shots I've seen of the Sing For Absolution video, and also just OoS's album cover. Will Of The People then! I wonder what direction Matt's going with this... Those gang vocals do sound a lot like the Beautiful People by Marylin Manson, and I can't fathom that Matt, Chris, and Dom wouldn't be able to hear that, so hopefully it's going to be used to some clever effect rather than just lovingly referencing MM's music now that he's eh... you know. Anyway excitement!!!

I mean, they might just be the actual song names. After The 2nd Law I don't put any song title past Matt.

Well good. My worst fear has been thoroughly disproved, so we're back to theory 1, which is the album's already done and they're rehearsing for a tour they've yet to announce which will probably start just after the album gets released.

So either the album's already done because there's no reason otherwise to be in purely rehearsal mode right now, or there's no album at all and any time they spent in recording studios over the past year was all for WSD. Tell us! Lol.

I really don't think Muse were going for serious back then though. Like, they tried doing "serious" again on Drones and that's the worst part about that album. It made the lyrics heavy handed, the tempos plodding, and even the cover art fall somewhere in the uncanny valley (I still remember people on here freaking out over the arm hairs on the big hand... seriously). Whereas when they were writing and recording Abso, sure they had some serious topics in mind and the music seemed to come from an unsterilized environment, but I can just imagine the laughter and air of mischief around the idea "let's just totally stop the song here and put in like half a minute of solo romantic piano and orchestral accompaniment, then pick the song back up like nothing happened... we'll call it... Butterflies & Hurricanes!" or "what if we tried to mix some more Michel Jackson into our sound," etc. Sure the record comes off as serious to the listener (mostly, there'll always be the lyrics to The Small Print, which are just so over the top they make me smile), but I imagine Matt, Chris, and Dom were just having a great fun time coming up with ideas for it and figuring out how to record them. It's why I'm so thankful they didn't follow up Drones with another "serious" record, despite loving Drones quite a lot. What often draws me to Muse over other bands who may be more consistent or acclaimed is their childlike absurdity. Drones isn't devoid of it (see choosing to end your album with a rewritten renaissance a cappella peace about drones, or the dialogue in Psycho, or Dead Inside as a whole), but Simulation Theory was chocked full of throwing caution to the wind and seeing what wild ideas might actually work. Break It To Me and Propaganda turned out to be especially off the beaten path and still both great songs, and the whole aesthetic of the album was so cheesy and gaudy it worked well with those kinds of genre mashup experiments, as well as the constant 80s throwbacks. So I guess what I'm saying is I, personally, don't want another "serious" album, or at least not another one that's actively trying to achieve that quality. I'd rather Matt and the band just do whatever excites and interests them and see where it takes them... follow their muse if I may... lol. But of course I loved Drones and I love Absolution and I love OoS and Showbiz so what do I know.

Unpopular opinion but I love Aftermath and Get Up And Fight. One starts Jimi Hendrix and gets Hey Jude via Queen, and the other would be a massive hit for Green Day or MCR, though with a modern pop flavor. And anyway it's not like it's the worst thing on ST (Dig Down? Thought Contagion?)

I'm listening to ABBA's Super Trooper album right now, and I'm on the penultimate track, Lay Your All Love On Me. And I was shocked when the chorus came in because I knew I recognized that melody anywhere, it's the same melody Muse use on Unnatural Selection during the part "counter balance this commotion, we're not droplets in the ocean." How interesting! I would've thought if Matt got that particular melody from anywhere else it would've been from one of his favorite romantic era composers, but there it is in an ABBA song! Here's the song for comparison:

I think there'd be more folks sticking around with an album announcement. Everyone chimed in to say what they thought of the song then got back to their usual lives.

Hey someone should change the title of this thread to LP9 (mature) discussion/speculation thread. We're all very mature around here!

Man it's growing on me, lol. I was like, "okay it's pretty standard Muse with an extra dash of metal" at first... but now that chorus is getting stuck in my head, the riffing is still super satisfying, and I'm even digging the verses with those massive bass thwops! I especially like the second verse and how it transitions suddenly out of the post-chorus riff and Matt sings "now I'm coming back." Plus the bridge, oh the bridge! Wicked cool, and someone mentioned that little bit of extra riffing at the end of the song and that little bit totally wraps the thing up nicely I agree. Muse are back!!!

Nah that's a percussion instrument called a gawk. It's basically a hard plastic rectangle with a handle and a hollowed out part on one side. You hit it with a drumstick and it makes a very loud clacking noise like a metronome.

Dom appears first and is holding a small dog. Matt is threatening to remind me of hours of tiring marching band practice with that gawk. There's cheap red curtain like an elementary school talent show... what is this strange Muse-verse I've landed in?

Here it is! The album ranking thread! Here's what my rankings are going into this new album cycle: 1. The Resistance 2. Origin Of Symmetry 3. Drones 4. Absolution 5. Black Holes & Revelations 6. Simulation Theory 7. Showbiz 8. The 2nd Law Top 3 are pretty certain, 4 & 5 and 6 & 7 could switch places depending on the day.

I still love Drones. I remember I was about to go on family vacation the day it was going to come out and I was afraid my local record store would be sold out of it by the time I got back, so I called and asked them if they could hold a copy for me... then they did me one better and told me I could come down and pick it up a day early since I was going to be out of town on release day. I was ecstatic! Top 3 Muse album for me. Hey, while the board is semi-active again, we should all do album rankings! Where's the thread for that...

Thank you for the recs

TMV... The Mars Volta? Lol I'm glad my screen name reminded you of them but I'm afraid that's not the reference I was going for, lol. I've never tried TMV, what should I check out?

Hm, but maybe the cult has another name? Just wondering why a cult with a name would wear a jacket with a monogram that doesn't spell their cult's name.

Come to think of it, that Drones 2 comment might not be far off regarding the music videos. I think it's safe to say the videos are going to be worth following!

It was also on the jacket of one of the characters in the music video. Could it be the name of some organization? Could this be another concept album?

A real troll would be to call it Return To Symmetry then fill it with rehashes of Unsustainable.

Maybe with some more Wolstenscreaming!

Deftones was exactly who I thought of during the bridge section. They were a big influence early on iirc so it's nice to seem them coming back around to that sound.

Odds that this is the record where Matt finally raps?

I had to be at work when it premiered! It's.... good. It's not bad. I'm not disappointed. I'm not that, er, un-disappointed either. It's oddly a very safe song despite the extraordinary heaviness of the prechorus and the bridge. I do dig the chorus. It sounds a bit out of place... but those signature Muse chord progressions are just 😘 The verse will likely grow on me. Not really thrilled with it but I came around on Dig Down so I can come around on this too. At any rate, I'm betting this song will wreck live. I hope this year is finally the year I get to go see them for the first time!