Album Of The Week: Simulation Theory — Muse
Eight albums into their musical career, Brit-band Muse ride the resurgence of 80s pop-culture, trading in the band’s rock-dependent style for a thrill-ride of neon subversion. Joe Napier examines Muse’s latest venture.
Few bands can create hype quite like Muse. Ever since they burst into the limelight with their first album Showbiz, the Teignmouth trio, made up of lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dom Howard have consistently crafted records of breath-taking madness. Their eighth studio release, Simulation Theory, is no different.
Continuing a psychedelic journey originating in 2009 with The Resistance, Simulation Theory blends the opposing yet equally applicable traits that make Muse who they are: a hearkening to their rock-of-ages past mixed deliciously with a sonic yearning for the future. In an interview with Variety magazine, Bellamy, as enigmatic as ever, laments “we’re a band in that transitional period between a 50-year cycle of rock and what could be a 50-year cycle of laptop music.”
Whilst their other most recent releases, The 2nd Law and Drones, are evidently influenced by recent genre trends, Simulation Theory actively borrows and replicates elements of house and EDM that have previously only been hinted at. Bellamy’s assertion that we may enter a “cycle of laptop music” suggests that this attempt at being current is as much a necessity as a musical decision, and Muse delivers on this with their traditional bombastic enthusiasm.
‘Algorithm’, the album’s opening track, debuts with a 95-second introduction. Zany piano swells reminiscent of old-school Muse collide with an ever-present keyboard undertone, reaching a crescendo as Bellamy’s lyrics enter. The dramatic cry of “this means war with your creator” introduces the futuristic paranoia of an unknown age. This is the world the listener is immersed in, the politics and lifestyle of which the band repetitiously reference.
Electronic concern on ‘The Dark Side’, one of five singles released prior to the album, picks up where ‘Algorithm leaves off. Its refrain of “break me out, break me out, set me free” highlights the prevalence of the sinister and unnerving environment continued in ‘Pressure’, another pre-release. ‘Pressure’ is more politically influenced and warns in a delicate whisper that there is “pressure building”, referencing the deepening of the story and indeed the album itself by which this tale is delivered.
While thus far the album has ticked boxes of drama, exposition and Bellamy’s multi-layered falsettos (an infamous Muse trope) it feels, as the title may suggest, like a Muse simulation. Elements of the fantastical are there without the delivery. It changes entirely from this point on.
‘Propaganda’ and ‘Break It To Me’ go beyond where Muse have ever dared go before. The former, a tantalisingly slow, sexy, Prince tribute introduces a voice-box overlord, decimating society with titular propaganda. One cannot help but succumb, as the narrator does, to this change of mood further emphasised in ‘Break It To Me’, where a house-influenced beat and pre-chorus “drop” break the mould once more. Dedicated Muse fans may not be placated by the modernising of the band’s sound but it is nevertheless a polished attempt at evolution.
‘Something Human’ changes the tone once more, the happy-go-lucky drum beat sounding more like something one could find in a Mumford and Sons record. A personal favourite on the album, it is simultaneously upbeat about the possibility of coming home to “something human” in this chaotic universe, while also remaining both wishful and anxious of dangers elsewhere. Politically aware as ever, Matt Bellamy’s lyrics - while written in relation to a land of make-believe - apply to the very current, human fears of a totalitarian state.
‘Thought Contagion’, ‘Get Up And Fight’ and ‘Blockades’ begin the rhetoric of uprising, another classic employ of Muse’s songwriting. All three are anthemic in their own ways, deploying chanting crowds, pop-punk angst (“I can’t do this without you” Bellamy wails in ‘Get Up And Fight’ straight out of the All American Rejects playbook) and nostalgic flair. The ‘Blockades’ intro is startlingly similar to the epic ‘Bliss’ from Origins of Symmetry creating a delightful mirroring of the past sure to thrill longstanding followers.
And so we come to the end. Or do we? ‘Dig Down’, released 18 months before Simulation Theory, is the penultimate track, is one of resolution and hope in the face of adversity and seemingly sets up ‘The Void’, the album’s 11th and final song, to play out a gloriously happy ending. It doesn’t.
Opening with a haunted ringing and bemoaning that “they’ll say the sun is dying”, ‘The Void’ drains rather than reconciles. Muse’s audience is left in limbo. If you enjoy the album, as I did, you’ll be left teetering on a knife-edge waiting for more. For that, you have two options. One is to desperately cling to the hope of a ninth studio album. There have been little to no in-house dramas during Muse’s 24-year journey to date, so this appears a probability. But in ‘Something Human’, Bellamy bemoans life on the road stating that he “crawls through the door” off the back of an extended tour. It is debatable whether the old fervour for their art remains.
Ironically, the second option is to feed that very problem, as Muse will play across the globe from February to July 2019 on their Simulation Theory tour. If the band remain enthused thereafter, a follow up to this ambitious, powerful work will be first on every fan’s agenda.
For Muse could have concluded this album in as satisfactory a way as possible and still there would be a craving for more. Their music remains as relevant and theatrical as it ever has been and their live performances only serve to accentuate this.
Muse could deliver time and time again, as they do in Simulation Theory, but still, it will never be enough. Perhaps that is the greatest compliment you can pay them.
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