Oct 28, 2009














np: Muse - "Unnatural Selection"


I'm beginning to wonder if I'm one of the last non-diehard fans to "get" Muse. I keep reading review after review of the new album, The Resistance, ridiculing the band for taking themselves too seriously and for lacking a sense of humor. Really? I mean, are these critics listening to the same band? I'm thinking the critics are the ones lacking a sense of humor, since they seem to be the ones completely unable to "get" this band. Of course Muse are over the top. Of course the lyrics are ridiculous sci-fi hysteria paranoid technobabble. That's entirely the point. I firmly believe that Matt Bellamy and the boys are perfectly aware of how ridiculous they are. That's what makes them so damned lovable. They aren't a great band, no. But they fill that stadium-packing niche that Billy Corgan abandoned nine years ago to go... well, whatever the hell it is he decided to go. Muse don't play rock shows, they put on spectacles. And in an era of record label cutbacks and shrinking budgets, what could be more antiestablishment than wanting to perform rock music laced with clarinet solos (clarinets for god's sake!) while dancers hang from helicopters skids? That's awesome. Embrace the ridiculousness.

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