The Music Review Nobody Asked For: The 2nd Law

Let's begin with a disclaimer: I am a huge Muse fan (both in weight and metaphorically) and so this review is written as an attempt to be as objective as I can.
The 2nd Law is Muse's 6th album coming off the hugely successful and Grammy-winning 5th album The Resistance.

Supremacy
Like classic Muse, the album starts off with a theatrical epic that goes over-the-top of what most people considers over-the-top. The common theme for most of Muse's opening songs is challenging authority and if the lyrics don't convince you Supremacy does the same, Matt Bellamy's guitar duet with a trumpet will do the trick. The track builds up to a fever pitch that makes even the quietest pacifist want to break something.

Madness
An interesting choice as their first official single for the album, this song came off as the natural progression to what they band was trying to accomplish with "Undisclosed Desires" in the previous album. This track is, for the most part, a gentle dance beat but giving way to a simple, but impressive guitar solo and leading into a build-up. Upon my first listen over a month ago, I wasn't all that impressed with this song until I reached the bridge. Bellamy's voice and harmonics is just simple, emotional and beautiful that compliments the 1st half of the song and balances out the entire track.

Panic Station
Let another batch of Queen comparisons out the bag and I could really care less. This song is just fun and funky. You can just hear through the music how fun it must have been for the members of the band to make this song. The addition of horns do a great job of rounding off the vibe this song is going for. As far as lyrical content, more "screw the powers that be" and do what you want with your life.

Prelude
Matt Bellamy is a boss at piano and can score beautiful music...nothing we didn't already know but we are all grateful for it.

Survival
Hearing certain fans complain about this song when it was announced as the official song of the London Olympics was interesting. It's over the top and cheesy because it's connected to the Olympics and that was coming from Muse fans. Yes, it's over the top but not more than United States of Eurasia or Take a Bow and as a matter of fact, we all applauded those other songs as being anthem's for the band (I would even throw Knights of Cydonia in the mix). It's a large-sounding epic that is in your face and meant to invoke an amped feeling from the audience and in that spirit, the Olympic committee made the right call with this song. Too bad NBC didn't follow their lead when they cut the band's performance from the closing ceremony...yes, I'm still mad about that.

Follow Me
I consider this song to be the first real derision from "the usual" Muse because of the dancefloor style but I would argue that it echoes a lot of the elements from Map of the Problematique. First of all, the frame of the song came from the iphone recording of the heartbeat of Matt Bellamy's then-unborn son, Bing (from what I understand, that's actually the first thing you hear at the beginning of the track). That being said, this song is exploring what it is to be a father and being the responsibility for the protection of this new life. The idea behind it is really cool and Bing is a lucky kid to have this to always go back and listen to.

Animals
This track, according to what I've gather from the lyrics, is shining a light on the savage nature when looking down to the floor of Wall Street trading floor. The music itself begins with a laid-back feel with an up-tempo John Mayer-esq guitar work that shows off Bellamy's technique (as if there were any doubt). The track then builds up as Bellamy seems to just cut loose on the guitar in a short, concise solo before leading into the hook that invokes complete chaos.

Explorers
The one thing that kinda bugs me about this track is that the lyrical content is a little too preachy for my test in regards to the planet being overrun and depleted resources. The music itself is really simple, lullaby-like but there doesn't seem to be much feeling behind it. I would definitely put this song as the low spot of the album.

Big Freeze
The quality picks back up, still keeping a slight preachy tone in the lyrical content but not nearly as overt as the previous song. The music seems to have a lot more emotional force behind it while remaining to come across and pretty simplified in comparison to the majority of the rest of the album. Being simple on this album is not necessarily a complaint because it's a nice balance with songs like Survival and Supremacy. Once again, Bellamy just makes unnatural sounds on the guitar.

Save Me
A major first for this band as this is the first of 2 songs on this album (or any of their albums) written and sung by bassist Chris Wolstenholme. On his first effort, I think Wolstenholme hit it out the park that doesn't deviate from the Muse sound we know and love but adding a new flair. His vocals have always been a simple balance to Bellamy's falsetto and it's really refreshing to her it front and center. The lyrics are simple as well and Chris explores the difficulty with alcoholism (according to several interviews) and all the aspects coming together for a beautiful song.

Liquid State
The 2nd song written by Wolstenholme that sounds like a mix between Unnatural Selection and a Dear Hunter song from the Red EP of The Color Spectrum while his vocals kept reminding me of Rob Swire from Pendulum (all of which is a major compliment in my book). The song is darker and more intense than the previous Wolstenholme song and shows off his range as a songwriter as he further his exploration of the difficulty of sobriety.

The 2nd Law: Unsustainable
Oh the whiny voices coming out of Muse fans when this song first came out and they were all centered around bit of "dubstep" in this song. People started gauging their eyes out because they were more worried Muse would try to be Skrillex and the entire album would be nothing but dubstep. First off, yes it is dubstep but it's Matt Bellamy playing on his guitar which just adds to my admiration of what this man can do with a guitar in his hands. Secondly, I really dig the mix of that with the full orchestra because it's something we haven't really heard before. I could've done without the anchorwoman giving a lesson of sustainability but it goes along with the theme so I'll allow it.

The 2nd Law: Isolated System
I spoke earlier of natural progression from their earlier work and I feel like this beautiful piece is a perfect progression from the Exo-Genesis piece on The Resistance. It shows off the depth and maturity Bellamy has developed as a composer and his desire to pull in as many elements as he wants and find a way for it all to fit together (dance beat, syphonic and even his son's heartbeat again) and blend into something almost brought a tear to my eye (to my defense, I was having a really bad day and this song just hit me hard).

My main message in the review is aimed at the Muse "fans" that are complaining about how much Muse has changed from what they're famous for. However, I would argue that was Muse is truly famous for is innovation and challenging themselves to push themselves further and that is what this album does. The album is certainly over the top at times but that has never been new for them. And yes, it took me a few listens to really dig into the album and enjoy it but that's the great thing I've always loved about Muse, there's so many elements to the instrumentation, guitar solos, lyrics that you really can't judge it on the surface. I highly recommend this album to anyone for what it is: It's an ambitious album but it's Muse being ambitious and that's always fun for everybody.
Listen twice and call me in the morning,
Dr. Chris