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

[Riveon]

Fix'd.

[haze015]

First time I've put it on in ages. Still think it's their best since Origin of Symmetry, just doesn't have enough jaw-dropping moments (I still can't listen to TOADA, by far the worst song they've done), but overall more consistent in terms of quality. Just the lyrics are a bit childish at times.

 

Don't get the stuff about them moving on, there's little actually new to Muse (Unnatural Selection is pure Showbiz/Origin B-side for a start) here except IBTY & Undisclosed Desires, which is the best song on the album imo, and would love to hear them try a whole album of a more electronic sound, especially when the best songs on BH&R & Absolution were often the more "electronic" songs, MOTP, Supermassive, Hysteria etc.

Not that I don't like the classical influence, just seems to be manifesting itself into a more west end musical thing and that's not good!

[eleanor huntley]

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one concerned about the sound the have now in comparison to preivous albums, I also love the old muse, and I'm not sure what to think of what they're doing now, showbiz and origin of symmetry are their master pieces, absolution was good, BHAR was not my favorite, there were more songs in it that i disliked, than the ones I liked, and then The Resistance ... there are bits in it that I love, but I don't like it as a whole, I know what you mean when you say they're going in a totally different direction, I feel the same way, and then they make songs for twilight.... I really don't know what to think

[Tunavi]

The only songs that I really like on TR are MK Ultra and Unnatural Selection. End of.

 

And Guiding Light..

 

ha-HA! i saw that small font you trickster!

 

Edit: lol actually I only saw it because I quoted you to ask why you didnt like guiding light anymore hahaha

[Hopix]

ha-HA! i saw that small font you trickster!

 

Edit: lol actually I only saw it because I quoted you to ask why you didnt like guiding light anymore hahaha

 

I saw it because it's not the same colour as the board theme.

[coldfire]

Well after 9 months of listening and seeing the songs live I have to say I love it. Had serious doubts when I first heard it but this far down the line, and seeing it rock live (USOE was a revelation), it's definitely their best album since BHAR

 

(But I do agree about the Twilight single, here's hoping it's MUCH better live.)

[jbyun04]

Every Muse album is different as mentioned above

 

Showbiz - I can't sit through a full listen unless I'm tired. Save for Sunburn, Muscle Museum and Showbiz, I could sleep through this entire album.

 

Origin of Symmetry - It's short and packs a punch, maybe too much of a punch because this is also tough to listen to straight 11 tracks in a row without me getting antsy. Citizen Erased makes me impatient sometimes.

 

Absolution - Album is too long for my liking. I can rip through Intro - Stockholm Syndrome and then I hit a wall at FAWY which I usually end up skipping. Then I listen to Hysteria and skip Blackout and sometimes B&H.

 

Black Holes & Revelations - Take a Bow to Map of the Problematique are excellent and then I skip until it's time to listen to Assassin. I'll skip CoD most of the time and listen to KOC.

 

The Resistance - I can actually listen to this beginning to end without any struggling. Exogenesis I don't feel drowsy because it's usually over so quickly. IMO this album flows the best beginning to end. I Belong To You even sounds proper after MK Ultra.

[Raiko]

Absolution is definately too long. Especially considering how theatrical it is.

[A for Awesomeness]

Every Muse album is different as mentioned above

 

Showbiz - I can't sit through a full listen unless I'm tired. Save for Sunburn, Muscle Museum and Showbiz, I could sleep through this entire album.

 

Origin of Symmetry - It's short and packs a punch, maybe too much of a punch because this is also tough to listen to straight 11 tracks in a row without me getting antsy. Citizen Erased makes me impatient sometimes.

 

Absolution - Album is too long for my liking. I can rip through Intro - Stockholm Syndrome and then I hit a wall at FAWY which I usually end up skipping. Then I listen to Hysteria and skip Blackout and sometimes B&H.

 

Black Holes & Revelations - Take a Bow to Map of the Problematique are excellent and then I skip until it's time to listen to Assassin. I'll skip CoD most of the time and listen to KOC.

 

The Resistance - I can actually listen to this beginning to end without any struggling. Exogenesis I don't feel drowsy because it's usually over so quickly. IMO this album flows the best beginning to end. I Belong To You even sounds proper after MK Ultra.

 

Hey man, I like trolling too.

[Clunge]

I'll skip CoD

BH&R fail.

[Super Sammy!]

It's not that the album was ever 'horrible', it's just that there is nothing memorable from the album. Exogenesis as a whole is poor, for me, because I think Cross-Pollination is horrid. I liked every song at some point, but the songs are all so disposable, rather than songs like...MotP, SS, CE, Showbiz etc that really stick in your head, or at least are songs you could listen to heaps for a long time before finally getting tired of them.

[Raiko]

BH&R fail.

 

I've got to admit, I do it too on occasion. Although quite different, it reminds me of B&H, which is a far better track.

[Clunge]

I've got to admit, I do it too on occasion. Although quite different, it reminds me of B&H, which is a far better track.

No way in a million years .

 

I think City Of Delusion is easily the best song from BH&R and amongst Muse's top five of all time.

 

But hey, swings and roundabouts, innit?

[apoco123]

For me the Resistance is a expansion of BH&R, they have just used the sound they used for that album and amped it up a little.

 

I loved the album personally, the hightlight for me is the finale three tracks (Exogenisis), MK Ultra brings that OoS era feeling back, (for me anyway), though I would like to hear more tracks that go back to their earlier roots/albums, as in Origin and Absolution.

[Hat]

For me the Resistance is a expansion of BH&R, they have just used the sound they used for that album and amped it up a little.

 

I loved the album personally, the hightlight for me is the finale three tracks (Exogenisis), MK Ultra brings that OoS era feeling back, (for me anyway), though I would like to hear more tracks that go back to their earlier roots/albums, as in Origin and Absolution.

QUICK, Take cover! Hide, or you'll get ripped apart by ignorant "Never question Muse"-fans!

[Hopix]

No way in a million years .

 

I think City Of Delusion is easily the best song from BH&R and amongst Muse's top five of all time.

 

But hey, swings and roundabouts, innit?

 

CoD is actually amazing.

 

hence my appreciation thread.

[jbyun04]

Hey man, I like trolling too.

 

care to explain how i'm trolling? Or do you just automatically label someone who has an opinion that you don't like a troll?

 

that's what i thought

[Tunavi]

9 months or so after release:

I still love uprising, I thought it wouldn't stand the test of time, but I see myself loving it for years to come.

I hate resistance more and more everytime i hear it. That chorus is so generic and completely ruins the song and its a shame because the verse is good. The whole thing is so 'meh.'

Undisclosed desires is so boring live and it really should needs arpeggios, guitar, and piano. I would have been fine if they went for a MotP 2 with this song. But they didn't. "meh."

USoE was never my favorite. Its too light for me. "meh."

Guiding Light is still shitty. I think it could have been better if it was recorded in a different style. Darker and without the cheese. Oh well.

Unnatural selection: One of the best live songs muse has written. The studio recording is so bland, but live, this thing fuckin rocks and Id like to see it years to come.

MK ultra - The whole first half of the album should have been like this. I cannot say more but its another fucking killer live track

IBTY - Mon Coeur is simply amazing. sadly, i belong to you is so boring.

Exogenesis: The whole second half of the album should have been like this. Exogenesis is so amazing and saves the resistance from being the worst muse album ever. Its beautiful.

 

Half meh - half

Too inconsistent, muse!

 

COULD have been better, but it just..wasn't

[Gretterati]

9 months or so after release:

I still love uprising, I thought it wouldn't stand the test of time, but I see myself loving it for years to come.

I hate resistance more and more everytime i hear it. That chorus is so generic and completely ruins the song and its a shame because the verse is good. The whole thing is so 'meh.'

Undisclosed desires is so boring live and it really should needs arpeggios, guitar, and piano. I would have been fine if they went for a MotP 2 with this song. But they didn't. "meh."

USoE was never my favorite. Its too light for me. "meh."

Guiding Light is still shitty. I think it could have been better if it was recorded in a different style. Darker and without the cheese. Oh well.

Unnatural selection: One of the best live songs muse has written. The studio recording is so bland, but live, this thing fuckin rocks and Id like to see it years to come.

MK ultra - The whole first half of the album should have been like this. I cannot say more but its another fucking killer live track

IBTY - Mon Coeur is simply amazing. sadly, i belong to you is so boring.

Exogenesis: The whole second half of the album should have been like this. Exogenesis is so amazing and saves the resistance from being the worst muse album ever. Its beautiful.

 

Half meh - half

Too inconsistent, muse!

 

COULD have been better, but it just..wasn't

 

I agree with all of this, except I think Undisclosed Desires is absolutely perfect (not live though) and while I love MK Ultra, I don't think it's nearly as great as everyone else seems to think it is.

[Davinq]

For me, the Resistance has aged like this:

 

1. Uprising still works for me. That synth bit is simply classic. Very Muse. It's aging pretty well IMO.

2. Resistance fails. The bass in it rawks, the lyrics are above par for Muse, but as a whole Resistance fails.

3. I fucking love Undisclosed Desires. I still wish it was MotP v2, but it's still a fantastic and addictive choon.

4. United States of Eurasia hasn't aged as well as Uprising. It seems to take Muse's mantra of cramming as many styles as possible into an album and apply that to a single song, with a result that is less than awesome. Again, Chris' bass is excellent, but it doesn't save the track from seeming like a disorganised mess. Same goes for NSC. They're still a long way from successfully blending classical and pop.

5. Guiding Light saved itself a little bit in the live setting, but I'd hazard a guess that if I didn't see it first hand I would still think it is pants.

6. Unnatural Selection is super spiffy. The riff gets a little repetitive, and Matt overloaded on vocal effects on the studio version to a sickening degree, but it is an absolute monster live, and I would hate to see it leave the setlist. Rivals New Born for me, they could alternate. Very good.

7. I've always been a sucker for really catchy, extended melodies that run for more than four measures, so MK Ultra is like a recipe for my love. The only flaw is the extremely repetitive and annoying guitar in the 'verse' sections, just that same A note over and over. That aside, it's my favourite on the Resistance, but I can see why it is not the greatest (hence why I am voting for Overture in the Elimination Game).

8. I Belong To You is kinda meh. I actually listen to the New Moon edit more, because it seems like a more consistent track overall. I actually don't like the French bit that much, but love the clarinet.

9-11. Exogenesis failed to live up to the hype, but the tracks have aged okay. I've warmed up to Redemption after some initial disappointment (see: extreme) at its anticlimactic ending. Cross Pollination was my favourite of the three at one point, but eventually faded for the same reason as USoE and IBTY. Overture, on the other hand, has benefited enormously from a positively chilling live performance.

 

As a whole, I just don't listen to the album anymore. I've actually been cycling BHAR lately instead.

[Carbo]

I haven't listened to Muse at all any lately due to me caring more about other shit but by that I still attest however that The Resistance is the one album from them that I can listen from start to end without skipping any tracks.

 

It's not without its flaws but then again Muse never were.

[Clunge]

Uprising - still love it, even more so now it's become monstrous live.

 

Resistance - never had massive beef with this song, the atmospheric intro and outro are a really nice touch, the verse, chorus, bridge and piano hook are excellent, though the pre-chorus does grate on me a tad these days.

 

Undisclosed Desires - a really welcome bit of experimentation from Muse with different styles that actually works incredibly well. I'm glad they didn't dwell on any of the sections of the song and draw it out, the way the second verse bounces straight-off after the chorus was an important decision when structuring it. I'm not fussed about it live though, it's too weak and doesn't fit well in the set.

 

United States Of Eurasia - again, I still love USoE. It's just a classic, OTT Musey piano song.

 

Guiding Light - Zzzzzzz, . Never again please.

 

Unnatural Selection - a fair standard, uptempo, Muse-by-numbers rock track. Good riff, good vocals, good outro. The middle-section is what makes it though. Like Uprising, it's become monolithic live.

 

MK Ultra - the best song from The Resistance. Fast, skittery, edgy and heavy with an electronic/synthetic tinge to it, the direction in which I'd personally like to see Muse pursue.

 

I Belong To You - fast becoming my joint-favourite on The Resistance. It feels sow Showbizzy and honest, and I adore the French part despite Matt's horrendous pronounciation . It feels so relaxed, jazzy and musical-esque, very theatrical. Also, I'm getting slightly irritated by those dismissing it as poppy or silly - it's a far far far more clever, sharp, witty and classy slice of pop than Muse have produced in ages, particularly when you compare it with Supermassive Black Hole, Invincible, Starlight, Uprising, Hysteria, etc.

 

Exogenesis - fairly standard Muse-come-classical. Excellent string-work, guitar work, glorious soaring vocals. I can't fault it, apart from it being spilt into three sections and being billed as a symphony. They should simply have put it on as one 13-minute track.

 

Uprising - 8/10

Resistance 7/10

Undisclosed Desires - 6.5/10

United States Of Eurasia - 7.5/10

Guiding Light - 2/10

Unnatural Selection - 8/10

MK Ultra - 9.5/10

I Belong To You - 9/10

Exogenesis - 9.5/10

 

= 7.44/10. Excellent stuff.

[Raiko]

Uprising - It's still a decent track, but its the songs that you like initially that start to grate after a while. I don't listen to this one as much as I used to.

 

Resistance - I think the hype has gone down with this one. I like the cheesy chorus. Overall the song works well. I rate it highly on its own, but not quite as well against other Muse tracks.

 

Undisclosed Desires - My favourite track after the Exogenesis trilogy. For what it tries to be, it succeeds at brilliantly. It's catchy, but its not completely in your face so i've yet to get sick of it. One of their best singles in my opinion.

 

United States Of Eurasia - I've always loved this one. This probably sums up all the things I enjoy about Muse most.

 

Guiding Light - Personally i'm glad some one wrote this. I like cheesyness in music. It beats hearing some one sing about their own lfie experiences and how unfortunate they are all the time.

 

Unnatural Selection - I've never gotten over how uninspired this song is. I don't mind it when a band treads the same ground over and over. Its pretty much the case with the majority of this album. However this song unashamedly borrows from older Muse songs and does nothing but make it ever so slightly more commercial. It's like watching your favourite movie done twice with different directors. In the end you'll pick your favourite and stick to watching that one more.

 

MK Ultra - Another great track. Would have been nice to hear it in a slightly more raw sound, but it still does the job. Love it!

 

I Belong To You - I still like this track. In fact, its been my ringtone since the album came out. It's just the lyrics are quite horrible. Many say it was tongue-in-cheek, which is usually the case. I say he just thought "That'll do" when writing the lyrics for this one.

 

Exogenesis - My absolute favourite Muse track of all-time. I definately prefer longer tracks that go places and i'm able to think up something incredibly visual when listening to these three tracks together. They are beyond epic. It's like a mini-movie soundtrack. More of this please!

[MUSEfan81]

I like Resistance a lot. My least favorite is Black Holes, actually.... But I love them all. If you've been a Muse fan for a long time, or you know their whole library of music, you know no two Muse albums are alike. At all. Every album has a distinct genera or flavor to them... they are all different spectrum of the same band's ability. The Resistance is different, yes. But it is not bad at all. It's skillfully written and performed. I LOVE Undisclosed Desires a lot... Unnatural Selection and MK Ultra closing in on second.

 

I think you're just being a baby about it. "Boo Hoo my Muse is doing something different."

 

Well you know, you really can't make every fan happy.... but I support them in this endeavor and into the future... Just hopefully it's a future with a little less Twilight.

 

It's not that i hate this album, but i find it's not that good like their previous albums

Won't review every single song separately, find them all more or less ok. (except maybe UD, not much of a fan of their experimenting with pop sounds, afraid what might come out of it on future albums - that's just not muse ).

 

The part i bolded in the quote.....i find that is one of the reasons i'm not that thrilled with TR. On the previous albums they took one sound they stretched through the whole thing, and that worked amazing each time, sounding like a well planed rock "story" (don't know what to call it - sounds complete).

With TR this is not the case. They picked up bunch of different styles and squeezed them into 1 album, so i didn't get the feeling like i had with the previous ones. Just sounds like some kind of compilation someone made, not like a MUSE album.

Hope the next album will be a step back from pop. (Guess they did this sound to win some american audience.... :/) .

[Clunge]

With TR this is not the case. They picked up bunch of different styles and squeezed them into 1 album, so i didn't get the feeling like i had with the previous ones. Just sounds like some kind of compilation someone made, not like a MUSE album.

I think that's the problem most people have with The Resistance, it's certainly the biggest downer for me.