Album Eight: Simulation Theory

[MandaF]

This new album is awful. There you go!

[Gareeh]

You're all thinking into it too much.

 

The lyrics make perfect sense without referring to what you're all referring to. I hadn't even thought about it that way. As if that's the only instance that term is used.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

You're all thinking into it too much.

 

The lyrics make perfect sense without referring to what you're all referring to. I hadn't even thought about it that way. As if that's the only instance that term is used.

 

Considering that the song is about the dangers of falling for a deceptive, charismatic leader and groupthink mentality, the "final solution" line seems to be a direct reference to the common meaning.

 

That said, I'd be inclined to defend the lyric because the song is a cautionary message to prevent that horror from recurring.

[Hat]

I went ten pages deep into the google results for The final solution and didn't find a single usage of the term that wasn't in relation to Nazism. If anything you have to think too much into it to find another meaning of the term, especially when you read the lyrics:

 

"They'll never do what you want them to

Give it up and watch them break through

It's too late for a revolution

Brace for the final solution"

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

Okay, so Matt knew what it’s connotations were and decided to use it anyway. Awful decision, yes. But, all I’d care to know at that point is why?

[Hat]

Well I mean it makes perfect sense in the song, just like Nigel_Tufnel explained.

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

So if it made perfect sense but ran the risk of coming off as extremely offensive and having fans hate it, why did he include it?

[Hat]

That's classic Matt Bellamy, isn't it?

[Nigel_Tufnel]

I think part of the problem is that Matt's lyrics are typically not very deeply nuanced and thought-provoking. Let's face it. He's not exactly at the Bob Dylan/Bruce Springsteen level and neither is anyone else, to be fair. When he decides to casually toss out a reference to the Holocaust on an album about digital age conspiracy theories, it's a bit jarring.

[kueller]

That's classic Matt Bellamy, isn't it?

 

I mean last album the most controversial was saying "fuck" and "ass" and now it's about referencing genocide so I can't wait to see what comes next.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

And here I thought "On the outside I'm the greatest guy" was the most controversial lyric on the last album.

[kueller]

I think in the long run discussion but Psycho was everyone's first real taste of the album.

[Nigel_Tufnel]

Either way...I was just being a touch sardonic there

[forevermusic]

I do find myself changing the line in Thought Contagion every now and again. Almost down to not thinking its a good idea to invoke in what is, at heart, a pop song.

 

Saying that, I do also kinda get the idea as to why its there, if only because of the way in the last five years or so that the Internet and online conspiracies has ultimately ended up desensitising a frightening large number of people to the point where they're willing to bring up such dark shit without even thinking its wrong to do so. But I do think the wording is still clumsy to justify its insertion.

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

I mean last album the most controversial was saying "fuck" and "ass" and now it's about referencing genocide so I can't wait to see what comes next.

 

I don't think it's a trend. Feels a lot more like a bad decision waiting to happen given Matt's lyrical standards and the subject matter he decided to write about on TC.

 

Besides, much of the rest of the album has Matt's best lyricism since TR, if not BH&R.

[static shadows]

The line fits with Thought Contagion's theme of poisonous political ideologies and the hysteria and at times outright bigotry of Fox News. The issue is that it just comes across as being so flippant. The chorus is not, "We've got to fight against this to ensure that the xenophobic slaughter of millions doesn't happen again." The message is instead, "Too late to fight against another Holocaust, they better just brace for it." The song does seem to be written from the point of view from someone who has been negatively indoctrinated, and is probably intended to warn against that eventual mindset, but it still comes across as startlingly tasteless and flippant at best. Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if Matt just wanted to work in the phrase to shock and draw on the Holocaust as shorthand for 'a coming apocalypse' and didn't think too much about it beyond that. Regardless, it's a fucking idiotic line to be used so cheaply and ambiguously. It makes me angry every time I hear the song.

Edited December 1, 2018 by Static Shadows

[dreamyana]

I'm gonna be completely honest with you and tell you while I assumed it was possibly something along the lines, I genuinely didn't know that was what he was actually referring too.

 

If you're actually wondering how come and thinking I'm a complete thicko, living in Australia we don't really focus on history from a European perspective in schools. It's very self-centred.

 

We learn about WWII and the Nazis yes but it's mostly just focussing on Australian involvement and the political and social climate in Australia at the time. Outside of that, the content is very limited to key dates - such as Normandy - and the things that are general knowledge - such as Auschwitz etc unless you choose to study these units in university (being at a music university, I did not).

 

We don't learn specifics and whilst we do learn about the extermination of large groups of Jewish people in death camps and the events that led up to it, not once in six years of high school did I hear it referred to as "the final solution."

 

Sorry if that's ignorant but if you're going to blame anyone, blame the public schooling system of this country.

 

Nah. You're fine. I personally don't see it as offensive. You could read it like that, but you don't have to. That's common knowledge but it's not as if he sings "lets kill everyone". Unless you read it like that... I don't.

 

You're all thinking into it too much.

 

The lyrics make perfect sense without referring to what you're all referring to. I hadn't even thought about it that way. As if that's the only instance that term is used.

 

Totally second that.

 

Considering that the song is about the dangers of falling for a deceptive, charismatic leader and groupthink mentality, the "final solution" line seems to be a direct reference to the common meaning.

 

That said, I'd be inclined to defend the lyric because the song is a cautionary message to prevent that horror from recurring.

 

That true too.

[Hat]

You're agreeing to two opposing views tho?

[kueller]

I don't think it's a trend. Feels a lot more like a bad decision waiting to happen given Matt's lyrical standards and the subject matter he decided to write about on TC.

 

Besides, much of the rest of the album has Matt's best lyricism since TR, if not BH&R.

 

It was a shitpost.

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

It was a shitpost.

 

Hm. Fancy that.

[Spiralia-statica]

Final solution in TC = apocalypse IMO. Apocalypse is an usual theme of Muse songs...and in TC it could mean a reload after a bad simulation...

[Saint Rockwell]

We gonna talk about Hungry like the Wolf or no?

[heyjackk]

We gonna talk about Hungry like the Wolf or no?

 

It was ok

[jonisdead]

Final solution in TC = apocalypse IMO. Apocalypse is an usual theme of Muse songs...and in TC it could mean a reload after a bad simulation...

 

"The" final solution vs. "a" final solution makes it seem less vague about what it means

[dreamyana]

You're agreeing to two opposing views tho?

 

Yeah. The beauty of music - you can read it in many ways.

 

Final solution in TC = apocalypse IMO. Apocalypse is an usual theme of Muse songs...and in TC it could mean a reload after a bad simulation...

 

Yup, like that !