REVIEW: MUSE - WILL OF THE PEOPLE

3.5/5

Musecage. 

'Apocalypse Please', pleaded the outstanding opening track on Muse's 2003 'Absolution' album. Well, it seems since one of the best British bands of this modern mainstream's last album (2018's 'Simulation Theroy' after the 2015 'Drones'), that track got its wish. And our planet is still in the midst of a pandemic after the year 2020, that was the end of the world as we and R.E.M. knew it. Therefore, the 'Will Of The People' needs the Mad Max meets Philip K. Dick act of apocalyptic prophecy in preparation. It needs its Muse. 

A band that for those who don't call them a Radiohead rip-off, but instead a meeting of the musical minds with the majesty of Queen's grand opera (taken to Wembley Live Aid extremes here for a group who took the podium for the 2012 Olympics in the new stadium), are something of an obsession. I know a couple of gents that not only have the iconic logo inked into the parts of the arm a loved ones name (figures) normally goes, but also once travelled to Phoenix, Arizona, USA back in the day from the UK, just to see them play. All the way to the dry desert, and they were about as much Steve Nash fans under that sun as they are Chris Paul ones today. Basically, they didn't go there for hoops. But this band that is anthemic and exactly what we need now for the anaemic 'Will Of The People' in this mixed-bag of a new album. Their first in four years. Two since the apocalypse. 

Marching to the beat of a new drum for the  arena rockers of glorious purpose and pomp and circumstance. One that provided not only the song for the 2012 London games, but also gave us the original pandemic's battle cry for 'World War Z', scoring in soundtracks, both a part of their '2nd Law'. Genre hopping and out of this world like the album artwork of volcanic statues (of the band?) that look like something in the Marvel clouds of 'Eternals' that still has 'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law' asking, "what the hell?" 

"A greatest hits album-of new songs", as proclaims the band for this self-produced album from Warner and Helium-3, not so humbly, but with wishful thinking you just have to admire. Now, this may not be the classic 'Showbiz' days of 'Origin Of Symmetry' in reflection. In all its 'Plug In Baby', 'New Born' 'Bliss'. Its operatic 'Megalomania', 'Feeling Good' like Nina Simone. Or the depths of 'Cave', for the 'Sunburn' of this 'Unintended' 'Muscle Museum'. But it's right there with the path of 'Black Holes and Revelations' and 'The Resistance'. Complete with its own new classics like the new anthem for the gaslit people (the standout single 'Won't Stand Down'), fair 'Verona' for all you Romeo and Juliet's and the lovely 'Liberation' that lays a scene of beauty for your new bliss. Besides the greatest hits thing wasn't their idea. It was Warners request for a band who just released the 2019 'Origin Of Muse' box-set. They're far from done, in hits of the past pasture. So why not combine all their records from days gone for tomorrow's new sound? 

Starting shaky with the album self-titled single and a massive music video most post-apocalyptic movie directors would kill for and the creative concept of 'Compliance', there's still legendary making lyrics to go for their legacy. "Compliance/We just need your compliance/You will feel no pain anymore/And no more defiance/We just need your compliance/Just give us your compliance/We won't let you feel lost anymore/No more self-reliance/(Com-com-com-com-compliance)", the Orwellian chorus orders. Its '1984' all over again like a Murakami magnum opus ('1Q84'). 

This ninth wonder also singles us out to 'Kill Or Be Killed' in this survival of the fittest day and age of crabs in the social media barrel. But for this LP produced everywhere, from the Beatles crossing of Abbey Road to a Red Room in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California for the record, it's the thriller 'You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween' that's going to be more fitting following this Summer day shift. Were our sweaty shirts turn to pumpkin spice and Michael Myers replaces fellow 80's top gun, Tom Cruise at the maverick movie box-office. Especially as the band embarks on their post-pandemic World tour behind the mask. Matt Bellamy making the corpse bride his muse as he sings, "you got me checking my mirror/you make me feel like I'm on the run/Where'd you hide the gun?/The kitchen knife in your hand/Are you the poison, are you the cure?/I'm not so sure." 

Matt marks this album as "a personal navigation through the fears" of "uncertainty" and "instability" in a world were "the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long, are genuinely threatened". It's clear to hear, that this is also a muse breaking free from the shackles of manipulating relations, whether in his world, or metaphor. From the cradle to the brave. 

'How Can I Move On' he asks with haunting 'Ghosts' in another hallowed track to file under 'hit'. Then the epic band reach 'Euphoria' as Bellamy bellows "give us euphoria" like he was after the new series of Zendaya's hit HBO show already (he probably is...we are). Speaking of wishful thinking again, this eco-friendly NFT album for your eco-chamber concludes with the final curtain of 'We Are F#####g F####d', which would sound so funny in falsetto, if it wasn't so f#####g true, right now. "We're at death's door, another world war/Wildfires and earthquakes I foresaw/A life in crisis, a deadly virus/Tsunamis of hate are gonna find us." Yep, that's pretty much the size of it as they genuinely ask if we believe, "we can survive all of this?" But as Matt, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard now live among us in the world they warned us about, they still provide us with the will and the resistance. Eclectic in their electronic exaltation. After all, this is for the people. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Liberation', 'Won't Stand Down', 'Verona'.