Which of Muse's hits do you think each song on WOTP corresponds to?

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

Back when Matt was first introducing the album in interviews, I remember him saying part of the impetus for this album's creation was the record label approaching them about making a Greatest Hits album, and the band were emphatically against that idea.  So instead of making a greatest hits, they pitched this album like a proverbial best of, but all the songs are new instead of old.  I believe Matt's comparison was Compliance being the best "pop Muse" song they'd ever done, or KOBK being the best "metal Muse" song they'd ever done (actually he might've said that about WSD, but I don't really see how it's fully in that camp with those very poppy verses). Anyway, I kinda doubt they approached writing and recording on a perfect song for song comparison basis, but I think it would be a fun game to play!  So, if you had to guess, what was the ten song Greatest Hits album tracklist the record execs pitched to the band that they then took and made into WOTP instead? Or if it makes more sense to think of it this way, what past Muse hit does each song on WOTP correspond to?

[Bohemian-Cygnus-Running-Out]

Here's my first go at it. To be clear, I don't think this is how they actually went about making the album, nor do I think there's really perfect comparisons for every track here, but I do think there are a lot of lines that can be drawn here.

1. Will Of The People = Uprising (the stomping, swinging, audience participation, blues inflected battle cry opener)

2. Compliance = Undisclosed Desires (the highly synthetic straight up pop song)

3. Liberation = I'm pretty stumped on this one actually, the closest thing it resembles is USOE, but that certainly wasn't a hit, right? I guess I could just call it "obligatory Queen song" and reference Madness since that *was* a hit and was very inspired by a particular Queen song (especially the guitar solo)

4. Won't Stand Down = Supermassive Black Hole? (not really a great comparison, but it does have the unclean vox in the hook where it gets way heavier than the verses, which are rather poppy, though this one lacks funk and adds more metal)

5. Ghosts (How Can I Move On) = Something Human (heartfelt love ballad that can be done solo, by Matt with one other instrument)

6. You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween = Time Is Running Out (I guess this is mostly lyrical, Matt is in a dark place dealing with some kind of toxic relationship, and the music is dark and moody but really catchy and in a pop song structure)

7. Kill Or Be Killed = Stockholm Syndrome (iconic elastic guitar riff, super heavy all the way through and somehow getting heavier as it reaches the chorus where Matt is shouting over the top)

8. Verona = Starlight (the not quite obligatory Coldplay type song, though sonically it's closer to Guiding Light and Invincible, and oddly reminds me of Save Me)

9. Euphoria = Plug In Baby (yeah I know, no big riff and this one is waaay more upbeat and peppy than PIB, but I think the tempos and the energy levels are actually pretty similar, the chorus has a similar feeling of catharsis, and honestly how would this not have ended up on a Muse greatest hits?)

10. We Are F*cking F*cked = Knights Of Cydonia (basically a whole different mood at the start of the song than at the end, with a little hint of an a cappella midsection via those big vocal harmony stabs before the ending riff breaks in, a song about the end of the world no less, and that ending riff definitely bears some similarity to the one in Knights)

 

Definitely some glaring omissions (Hysteria, Muscle Museum, Thought Contagion, Psycho, Dig Down, Resistance, Butterflies & Hurricanes, Map Of The Problematique, Sunburn, Feeling Good, Panic Station... I know there's more), but hey, Muse definitely have more than ten "greatest hits" worthy tracks (especially if you start counting fan favorites that aren't really that popular outside of Muse circles... cough cough Citizen Erased). But anyway I think this should be a fun game for anyone else who wants to try. I definitely had a hard time pinning a few of these down, while others came to me instantaneously.