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  • 2 weeks later...

I decided to give Simulation Theory another listen today after completely avoiding it for the past 3 weeks. I was hoping for an "absence makes the heart grow fonder" moment. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

 

About a minute into Pressure, I was ready to shut it down but I plowed ahead temporarily. Had to skip Propaganda shortly in because it's horrible. I'm assuming that SH, TC, GUAF and Blockades all played but they were as dull and forgettable as previously suspected. Skipped Dig Down (see Propaganda). The Void definitely happened.

 

This album just strikes me as cold, sterile and processed. The only song that breaks that mold is BITM but it's really not very good either. Mostly just irritatingly clangs and plods along. As much as I dislike Simulation Theory, I'd still say that it's generally better than much of the other rubbish posing as modern rock these days. So there's that...

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I wonder why the Simulation Theory videos do not have more reproductions on YouTube. The vids are very good so I expected more viewers and more excitement for the album. I think there is no connection with teenagers, the main audience of YouTube and I don’t know why. ST album is really great, not one of the best, but it’s still great.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 1/15/2019 at 1:06 PM, vixi said:
On 1/12/2019 at 11:12 AM, MAurelia said:

I wonder why the Simulation Theory videos do not have more reproductions on YouTube. The vids are very good so I expected more viewers and more excitement for the album. I think there is no connection with teenagers, the main audience of YouTube and I don’t know why. ST album is really great, not one of the best, but it’s still great.

 

On 1/12/2019 at 11:35 AM, Sippe said:

I would say that it’s because the videos aren’t really that interesting.

 

On 1/15/2019 at 1:06 PM, vixi said:

 

I would argue that Muse aren't either anymore, to a larger audience

 

 

On 2/13/2019 at 6:52 PM, MAurelia said:

That’s what I think what a pity 

You know, I wouldn't necessarily see that as a bad thing, to be honest. There's no need for them to make stratospheric numbers or cater to a specific kind of audience to be great.

EDIT: That is, not more than they've already done, I mean.

Edited by MartianSpaghettiRider
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I know they are great and, of course, they don’t need a biilion views on You Tube to be greater. But I think they should enchant a younger audience to have more followers and endure more in the future imo.

Anyway the only thing that really matters is that many  people go to see them live. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Revisited the whole album tonight for the first time for a good few months and I was quite surprised by quite a few things.

First and foremost, I enjoyed album as a whole far more than I recall having done a while ago. Even the tracks I previously really have struggled to stomach like Thought Contagion and Dig Down (note: I still think TC is pretty damn horrible for a whole bunch of reasons).

Instead though, it was songs like Something Human and Get Up And Fight that really stood out for me - Something Human in particular, especially the acoustic version, is a really sweet song. GUAF meanwhile is just fine. Absolutely fine. I don't think I'll ever truly warm to those saccharine yelps in the intro and post-choruses but the song itself is sound.

I find Pressure a touch dull, and the marching band version is absolutely vile. I can't stress just how much I hate the additional focus on the brass and that piped crowd noise. Just the worst.

I stand by the alt version of Algorithm being vastly inferior to the album version, although that said, it's really not that strong a song - I like it, but it definitely suffered from the hype machine like Supremacy did. It really couldn't ever live up to the song I built it up to be in my head.

Dig Down is a funny bugger. I genuinely do really like the gospel version, but tonight, I definitely didn't grimace at the straight up album version. It washed over me rather than irritating me. I can't say whether that's good or bad.

The Dark Side grows and grows and grows on me, and the alt version is the pick of the alternative versions for me - the HCM treatment works a charm. I love both versions of Propaganda, but the aspects of the song emphasised in the acoustic version I think I prefer overall. I just love how ridiculous the album version is.

Break It To Me is immense, album and remix. Blockades remains completely forgettable, and The Void - argh, it's odd. I should love it, but it leaves me cold. The second verse starting 1:08 is masterful in the same way the second verse of The Handler is brilliant, just one of those passages where they threw everything at it and it works. But I do now find the end quite dissatisfying. The break at 3:17 kills the flow and then just when it sounds like they might just save it, those piano tinkles at 3:30 build to nothing and the song peters out completely. It's a dud ending when it could have been so much for. It ends up sounding like they couldn't be arsed to finish it off properly. It's that difference between the studio version of Take A Bow, with the fade, and the live version with the BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM finale. The piano version addresses some of the issues it must be said, although I'd rather have a full piano version along the lines of the acoustic version with a full band backing in the style of Ruled By Secrecy or Hoodoo.

Bleh. It's another bag of all sorts. Just like the last three or four albums, some of it is absolutely exceptional, bits of it feel half arsed or just plainly half finished, some passages sound like experimentation / variety purely for the sake of it rather than having been done with any artistic merit or thought, and some bits are just downright offensive to the ear.

I would just say though that NONE of it gets even remotely close to any of the high points on Drones. Dead Inside remains one of my all-time favourite Muse songs and easily their most successful foray into any kind of electronic-rock-pop crossover (well, apart from Map), while The Handler and Reapers still stand out proud.

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/17/2019 at 3:26 AM, MAurelia said:

I know they are great and, of course, they don’t need a biilion views on You Tube to be greater. But I think they should enchant a younger audience to have more followers and endure more in the future imo.

Yeah, it makes me sad to think they may be entering the early stages of becoming a dad rock band. I really want to believe that they have at least one more real hit left in them. This isn’t to say that it’s all about making hits and getting YouTube views, but I believe there’s way to be business smart and find a way for them to really study what works in today’s music climate and apply it to themselves in some way. I think Propaganda is a shining example of this; I was as terrified as anyone else when I heard Timbaland was producing but imo it worked wonders.

P.S. Anyone seen this? Dom mentions coming up with ideas for the next album (in the studio?) as early as next year. Is this a normal pace for them? I mean, I guess it is. Two years after Drones we got Dig Down.

[Edited for spelling]

 

Edited by svenisms
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  • 4 weeks later...

Yes. At the beginning the volume is way up, but after some songs I need to turn it down - I guess cause of the different producers ? Starts sounding more badly .. but when The Void starts it goes up again 😬

But I still prefer Drones.

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On 5/21/2019 at 12:49 AM, That Little Animal said:

Just curious. Is anyone still listening to this album?

I put some of my favorite songs on various Spotify playlists, so I still hear those songs, but I haven't listened to the whole thing in months. 

Yeh loads

Honestly there’s only 2 songs that don’t get me up for it, and even one of them I’m occasionally be in the mood for. Literally everything else is bangin

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On 5/21/2019 at 1:49 AM, That Little Animal said:

Just curious. Is anyone still listening to this album?

I put some of my favorite songs on various Spotify playlists, so I still hear those songs, but I haven't listened to the whole thing in months. 

Yes. I still listen to the album, specially when I drive. I like it!

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On 5/21/2019 at 12:49 AM, That Little Animal said:

Just curious. Is anyone still listening to this album?

I put some of my favorite songs on various Spotify playlists, so I still hear those songs, but I haven't listened to the whole thing in months. 

Sure thing!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/21/2019 at 1:49 AM, That Little Animal said:

Just curious. Is anyone still listening to this album?

I put some of my favorite songs on various Spotify playlists, so I still hear those songs, but I haven't listened to the whole thing in months. 

Nope.

 

Edited by Timbo59
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