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The Elephant in the Room: The Resistance isn't that good

BOOOOONUS PAAAAANTS

By BOOOOONUS PAAAAANTS
in Songs & Releases

Do you not like The Resistance?  

488 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you not like The Resistance?


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nohopeinfear Escapee

nohopeinfear

Posted
Posted
*sneaks up and sets trap*

 

I wonder why this album was so much cheaper than any other album they've releaced?

 

*sneaks back behind big rock and waits*

 

 

Because CD sales are dead on their arse??

 

Most CDs' now cost less than £8 as most people download them via iTunes and whatnot.

 

Me, I paid £60 for the boxset, which, considering there's only 5,000 in existence, I think is worth it for the sentimental reason alone :yesey:

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Dramatic Hammer Escapee

Dramatic Hammer

Posted
Posted
You can be disappointed, if I say its ok :p

 

The 'I hate Muse now, they've sold out, Matt's a twat' comments are pretty funny :LOL:

Haha yes but they've been funny since OoS :chuckle:

 

You don't like it? :stunned:

 

I do like it, just not as much as I hoped I would... It got 5.6/10 when I averaged out the track by track scores but that was treating Exo as one track.

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Mozza Assassin

Mozza

Posted
Posted
You don't think it's awesome either? I thought we were brothers. :(

 

I'm an Origin of Symmetry fan boy, and probably always will be :LOL:. But I did write this:

 

 

 

So Muse are back with their 5th album, over 3 years after their acclaimed yet disappointing 4th album 'Black Holes and Revelations'.

 

My initial feelings on 'The Reistance were that this would be a disaster. Slap bass, Queen-esque backing vocals, a song with french in it and climaxing in a 3-part symphony sounded like Muse were going to try too hard to make something so over-the-top to live up to their reputation of a band who don't do things by convention and the results would be a collection of deluded songs that do nothing bar raise the feeling that Muse have lost the plot completely as they try and force a their sense of humour on their fans. Hearing United States of Eurasia didn't do much to ease these thoughts.

 

However, I was a bit wrong. Uprising is middle-of-the-road enough to attract new fans to the band, whilst retaining their core fans, it has what lead singles should have, a catchy chorus, easy going rhythm and more importantly, is fairly subtle and sensible (despite the Dr.Who style riff). What follows is a collection of songs which have one eye on mainstream appeal whilst adding into them a sense of 'Museness' that you'd expect from the band. Resistance may have a bit of a cheesy chorus but the atmosphere created in the verses and intro keeps it interesting and decent enough and will no doubt be a single in the future, the piano parts in particular are stunning. Undisclosed Desires sounds like it should be a complete mess but somehow strangely works. It sounds like a decent Timbaland/R'n'B track without needing the semi-naked girls to keep it interesting. United States of Eurasia still sounds a bit silly in places, with its Queen backing vocals and 'SIA SIA' chants. Including a Chopin piece in the outro could be bold or unneccesary depending on your view point, but within the context of the album, it does a good job to lead into Guiding Light. Unfortunately Muse still continue to insist on including a fist pumping power ballad, and unfortunately they still can't pull it off, luckily distorted bass makes this song more bearable than their previous efforts in this area.

 

Then the album really takes off. Unnatural Selection and MK Ultra nod back to their early days. Muse are probably never going to make another Origin of Symmetry, but including these songs shows that they still know how to rock. I Belong to You is just so quirky and ridiculous and lightens the atmosphere following a string of serious tracks. A song that sounds like Maroon 5 with a clarinet solo an operatic breakdown sung in French should not work, but it does, and its hilarious at the same time.

 

But its the end where Muse really show their talent. Lets be honest, this is not a symphony, but it is more than being a rock song with some strings and piano in it. Muse's 3-part Exogenesis is one of the most moving pieces of music i've heard, bearing in mind I am not much of a classical music fan.

 

So there it is, 'The Resistance'. An album that can make you laugh, can make you cry and possibly leave you wondering what just happened in the past hour. Its probably not going to end up being Muse's best work, and they may have lost that 'over the top but subtle' approach that makes Origin of Symmetry and Absolution such great albums, but its much more eclectic and vibrant mix of songs than the disjointed frustration that is Black Holes and Revelations.

 

8/10

 

 

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Ril Assassin

Ril

Posted
Posted
I'm an Origin of Symmetry fan boy, and probably always will be :LOL:. But I did write this:

 

Me too, but I have to say this album comes pretty damn close to me. Even Origin has Feeling Good. ;)

 

I just read your review and 8 was a good score. I'll still talk to you. Good review.

 

Ril, are you also known as "Icarus Smicarus" on another forum? :erm:

 

Haha no, I might ask Kev to change my username to that though!

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seraph1337 Escapee

seraph1337

Posted
Posted

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT, GET DOWN!

 

First post here, I have been lurking here and there for a while now.

 

I picked up the album this morning having never heard anything from it - not even the 30 second clips. I have remained immune to 99% of the hype about this album as I think the only time I actually read anything about it at all was a short article in a music magazine like a year ago. Admittedly, I've only listened to it once so far (playing it again atm, on my stereo instead of my PSP this time), but I was sorely disappointed after my first listen. I mean, I fell asleep during Exogenesis Pt3. Ouch.

 

I will admit that I am mostly a progressive rock/metal afficianado at heart, and that my first taste of Muse was Knights of Cydonia in Guitar Hero III. After that, I picked up BH&R on impulse when I saw it at the store. I like most of BH&R (yes, even Starlight). I would say the album has a total of about 7 minutes of "boring" in it.

 

OOS is, of course, a very good album, as is Absolution, but Muse has always been a band that, for me anyway, makes three quarters of a stellar album and then fills the rest with stuff that just doesn't go anywhere. Muse is at their best (IMO) when they are playing heavy riffs on overdriven guitars and plunging forward to a climax. Beyond that, they write some great sweeping ballads and epic pieces that I also enjoy greatly. I haven't honestly listened to Showbiz enough to make a clear statement on it -- I listen to so many different bands that I often forget to listen to everything by any one of them.

 

All of this said, Muse has moved in a direction I don't particularly enjoy on this album. I'd like to give a song-by-song review so that my thoughts aren't muddled or vague.

 

Uprising: The opening is sorta eerie but those claps really ruin the tone for me. The White Wedding take is very blatant, but I have never been one to mind someone borrowing a riff (except Rhianna with Tainted Love but that's neither here nor there). Matt's lyrics have gone from subtly political at times, overtly at others, to "OMG I HATE THE GUBMINT". I get that the theme is resistance, but subtlety and clever wordplay will always win against "it's time the fat cats had a heart attack". The guitar work here is interesting at times but never really rises above mediocrity in the song's grinding repetition. Also, the "so come on" whine is sooooo tacky, not pulled off with nearly the grace as, say, "come on, come on" in Supermassive Black Hole.

 

Resistance: The opening is reminiscent of Map of the Problematique a bit, guitar tone similar to something out of U2. The chorus opening up is a welcome relief from a fairly boring verse, but I feel like the Beatles-esque "could be wrong" parts were cool a few times but then kept going. Another so-so verse, the chorus, and the bridge, which is probably the best part of the song. A decent climax with some cool bass trills.

 

Undisclosed Desires: Sounds like a recent hip-hop artist ran into like... Duran Duran or something, inasmuch as the instrumentation goes at first. The hokey snap/claps are back but, again, don't set a tone like they did in Time is Running Out or Supermassive Black Hole. The verse, again, is not appealing at all. The chorus is very interesting, with the interweaved harmonies, and I really do enjoy it quite a lot. The second verse, somehow, seems infinitely more intriguing than the first, mostly due to more complex layering beneath. Matt's need to fill instrumental parts with ooos and ahhhs really bugs me here. Bass trills here are verrrry similar to those in Resistance.

 

USoE: Starts off with a cool piano part unnecessarily covered by Matt's vocal play again. Uninspired lyrics, and then the "HI THIS IS MUSE PRETENDING TO BE QUEEN" bit. Again, I don't mind homage but it just strikes me as tacky. The Middle-Eastern-ish(?) orchestral/piano segue is awesome, though, and the second verse has some interesting layering. The bizarre Eurasia bits are pretty cool but still have the underlying sense of smarmy, overdone bombast. Outro kinda drags.

 

Guiding Light: The first verse really reminds me of something, but I can't think of what. That aside, the drum tracks for the first few minutes of the track strike me as terribly tacky. The song is very U2 until the brief Queen guitar solo. The track starts to build but then collapses back into itself shortly thereafter and never actually goes anywhere.

 

Unnatural Selection: The organ intro actually builds into something very cool here, thankfully. The transition at 2:00 opens into a guitar riff straight out of New Born, which is still good, but I've heard it before. The chorus is catchy, if it ends with a sorta bizarre operatic "ocean". The song ends up digressing, however, into that slow bass/guitar bit and then the bridge that doesn't really add anything to the piece and muddies the drive the song had. After that the song just kinda carries on aimlessly before dropping back into the chorus and an acceptable ending, although the harmonies on "I want the truth" get a little out of control.

 

MK Ultra: The piece has a cool sci-fi tone and some interesting synth-bass plays. The breakdown and rebuild play well to Matt and Chris's skills, but in the end the song is just good. It's probably my favorite song on the album, though.

 

I Belong to You: Sometimes I just don't get Matt. This song seems caught between Gnarls Barkley, Britney Spears, and Timbaland. None of whom I really enjoy. The song had potential, I think, but the execution is just bleh. The drop and pickup of the word "muse" on either side of the (terrrrrrible) interlude is a neat concept, ruined by the utterly bad, unnecessary, half-opera vocal meanderings Matt takes in between. At the end of the song all I can say is "WTF?"

 

Exogenesis: This needs to be taken as one piece, I think, in order to get a coherent whole out of it. First of all, I must grant that the fact Matt arranged all of this does impress me some. It would function very well as a soundtrack for an epic sci-fi film. The tension it builds is quite well-done, but the vocals go nowhere at all, and where they come in, spoil the piece nearly every time, although the vocals in Pt3 work quite well, including the reference to Map of the Problematique. Overall though, it's a well-written orchestral piece with some quasi-rock elements here and there. Not at all a space rock epic, by any means.

 

Well. I'd say there's my 2 cents but it was more like 50 bucks.

 

-Seraph

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Ril Assassin

Ril

Posted
Posted
I only ask because there's someone on the NME forum (:facepalm:) who has the exact same avatar as you :happy:

 

It's Radiohead's recent single artwork.

 

I learned to not pay attention to Muse's lyrics 7 years ago

 

Me too. I can't believe people still moan about the lyrics.

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Kuje Escapee

Kuje

Posted
Posted
Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeee

Off your disguise

I know that underneath

It's me

oooooooooooooooohhhhh

 

Such brilliance

 

This isn't that funny and I have no idea why I laughed at this for several minutes. Seriously. I still can't stop.

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