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Do you like The Handler?  

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  1. 1. Do you like The Handler?

    • Yes, yes, yes!!
      580
    • Maybe
      20
    • Nope
      3


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I said it before either on here or reddit and got flamed for it but I predicted that matt wouldn't perform the doodoodoo part live in this song because of difficulty; I think he did it once at the end for obligatory reasons but I'm not surprised he avoided it earlier in the song

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I like that soundcheck.

 

I definitely love the live music played in empty places.

 

No poses or gestures, just musicians playing music.

No screaming fans with vuvuzelas ruining the songs.

No need to play Madness or Starlight to please the crowd.

 

So, Muse, please, don't be a dick and your next tour better be without crowds (Tom is OK).

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I like that soundcheck.

 

I definitely love the live music played in empty places.

 

No poses or gestures, just musicians playing music.

No screaming fans with vuvuzelas ruining the songs.

No need to play Madness or Starlight to please the crowd.

 

So, Muse, please, don't be a dick and your next tour better be without crowds (Tom is OK).

 

bet you're a right fucking laugh at gigs

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I certainly don't dislike the new album or new Muse, in fact I'm always a little saddened when I read the fan hate for The 2nd Law (of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.)

 

Having said that, when you get to a track like The Handler, it is kinda astonishing how well it fits with their older sound. Same thing with Animals. Matt clearly hasn't lost the ability to write in that style, which they pull of so well, but I get the feeling that he wants to be this all-round, all-purpose composer.

 

With the new albums, you've got your classical pieces (Exogenesis, Drones), you've got your arena rock anthems (Guiding Light, Revolt) or glam rock stompers (Uprising, Defector), you've got your film music (Isolated System), you've got your big musical numbers (USoE, Explorers, Aftermath, Globalist ending), you've got your synthpop (Madness) or iPod commercials (Mercy). Songs like Psycho are an exercise in simplistic, riff-centric songwriting, while Matt also clearly has the chops to write (relatively) harmonically complex songs (best examples of this would be Take a Bow or Knights of Cydonia).

 

On The Handler, they achieve a great balance between riff rock and classical melody. It has probably the most gorgeous bassline of their entire catalogue and features some of Matt's finest vocal work. "YOU WILL NEVER - OWN - ME AGAIIIIIIN" is frisson-inducing. It's missing some of the wild energy of the OOS/Absolution era, but that's to be expected,

 

That balance could be what's missing on the last few albums. Too often the songs are either too out-there or too simplistic. And I'm sure the band doesn't just want to play OOS/Abso anymore; they want to cover more terrain than that. But it often results in a lack of focus. I don't know what could be done about that, or if anything should be done about it. Maybe someone should let Matt score a movie or write a musical to channel some of his stranger creative energies into? Who knows.

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Against my predictions the first time I heard it, the solo/ bridge part doesn't get boring or tiring after a few listens. I've lost count to the number of times I heard this track and I get so incredibly pumped up when it gets there. It builds and builds and leads perfectly to the final part of the song.

 

This is just a masterpiece. I don't have a favorite Muse song, just a few I hold higher (such as Showbiz, Stockholm Syndrome, Eternally Missed, among others) but I have a feeling this one, with time, could take the number one spot for me.

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I said it before either on here or reddit and got flamed for it but I predicted that matt wouldn't perform the doodoodoo part live in this song because of difficulty; I think he did it once at the end for obligatory reasons but I'm not surprised he avoided it earlier in the song

 

That's a real shame too because it's one of my fave parts of the entire song. It's the bit that's always stuck in my head. I think he'll bail on it most of the time, it sounded pretty weak in the soundcheck.

 

Honest question, what Muse song, of ALL of them, is actually terrible live? Subpar, sure... but I don't think I've ever heard them perform a terrible song.

 

Guiding Light, Explorers, UD, Save Me.

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