Taking the piece de la: Muse - 'The Resistance'

Listening to The Resistance after Muse's previous albums (Origin of Symmetry in particular) is kind of like watching Star Wars: Attack of the Clones after watching the previous Star Wars films (The Empire Strikes Back in particular).



Admittedly lyrical prowess never was Muse's strong point to begin with, just as deep reflective storytelling was never the USP of Star Wars. Each Muse album to date has showcased the band's increasingly ambitions song arrangements and their athletic chops which were evidently pimp tight from day one.

Hundreds of 'Expanded Universe' Star Wars novels and a million fanfics might say otherwise, but the truth of it is that the Star Wars saga is no exercise in deep reflective storytelling. Sure it's a great fun ride, but for all of the nods to Kurasawa it's really little more than a classic fairy story set in space. Except for one where the princess turns out to be the hero's sister and the villain his dad, etc etc. Star Wars is thoroughly enjoyable, all-action good time fun, but it ain't Citizen Kane.

The awful truth was laid bare by the introduction of Hayden Christensen. Homeboy's acting in the Star Wars films is what the lyrics on The Resistance are to Muse's back catalog; an embarrassment which does no credit to the former track record.

They make the lyrics to Green Day's 'American Idiot' sound like Noam Chomsky by comparison. I don't really know what they're trying to do here. Matt Bellamy, enconsced in his palatial Italian dwelling must have noticed that there was a recession or something bad going on and that people were a bit miffed. Maybe I've got it all wrong, but the whole venture smacks of a contrived attempt to cash in on people's anger with politicians pissing our tax money away on Virgin Media porn downloads and bird houses.

The title of 'United States of Eurasia' belies it's source material and lyrically is the worst offender here. The words scan EXACTLY how you'd imagine those of a sixth form punk band whose bass player had just read Nineteen Eighty-Four, dashed off some lyrics and handed them to the singer. The fact that it was written by a grown man in his thirties just ups the wack factor. I can't quite believe that this is the same band that released Origin of Symmetry eight years ago.

There's a bit in Attack of the Clones when Christopher Lee's character appears towards the end and proceeds to show up the rest of the film with his patently better acting. That's what listening to the three-part 'Exogenesis' movement is like. This bit stands head and shoulders above the rest of the record and makes me wish that Muse had put this bit out as an EP, taken six months off before releasing the rest of 'The Resistance' and spent that time putting as much effort into the words as they clearly have everything else; the production, packaging, promotion and everything else.

Sorry guys, I love your other work but this is a super massive let down.