WILL OF THE PEOPLE

There's a new Muse album and it is quite horrible! 'Will of the People' is the English art rockers' ninth studio release and was supposedly written to serve as a 'best-of' or a 'greatest hits' compilation of new songs (which the band preferred to do over a proper 'The Best of Muse', as it had been proposed to them by their label), but the end result is a bag of ten virtually unlistenable, tedious, pretentious and outright disgusting songs. I can hardly think of another rock album that has made me feel this way, as I have heard some pretty terrible records along the years, but this one really is Muse hitting rock bottom - there is nothing I can take from this album, nothing I enjoy in it; Instead, 'Will of the People' happens to be a collection of the worst traits of the band's music, lumped up together and all kind of focused on a very pessimistic outlook on reality, a sad reflection of the world we live in right now, and a not too positive prediction (referring to the final track on the album). All good, but the music is beyond bad.

Opening up Muse's ninth is an awful cover of Marilyn Manson's 'The Beautiful People', this one is quite bad and it seems quite heroic to even go through the whole 3:20 minutes of playtime. 'Compliance' is unnecessarily cocky for my taste, while 'Liberation' reminds me for whatever reason of Queen, and this is an unwanted reference on such a weak album; The next three tracks are entirely lacking any personality, 'Kill or Be Killed' is the heaviest song on the album and should be of some more interest but is in reality a mediocre heavy rocker from Muse, 'Verona' and 'Euphoria' are boring and bland, and the final track is another unlistenable disasterpiece, difficult to go through.

Yes, Muse do cross several genres on this pretty tight 2022 release, but the idea behind it is realized quite poorly, as they simultaneously fall into the trap of not being very original. Then again, even if we take away these seemingly more minor flaws, the quality of the compositions on 'Will of the People' is just not good, there is practically nothing positive you could bring up about this record, it is not enjoyable, it is not pleasingly memorable, it is not entertaining, it is not experimental; It is bad, goofy and sloppy, and I truly hope that this LP does not indicate the future direction of rock music, because it would be a dark perspective in this case. The good news - it is all up-hill from here from Muse! Right??

I'm something of a fan of this band having discovered them just after 2003's Absolution which still in my eyes is one of the best albums of this century. Can this current release possibly get anyway near that?! Well they give it a good go for sure. Not many bands have a guy as talented as Matt Bellamy and he very much helms this release writing all 10 of the original songs. In general not much nowadays cuts through for me either lyrically or musically. This manages to do both on every track. It does lay it down clearly that we live in a world on the brink of disaster and really there is no other conclusion to be drawn , unless you live in fairy land. Matt indulges his favourite themes of government control , ''brainwashing'' if you like, on the tracks Will Of The People, Liberation and Compliance but every song is a different entity expressing a different aspect of the same feeling. My favourite tracks are mostly on the second side of the album (vinyl wise) Kill Or Be Killed is an excellent metal influenced track while Verona is just so sublime and beautiful. I especially love the pipe organ on You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween , probably the first time its been used since Meglomania on the Origin Of Symmetry album. Alienation, helplessness and despair abound and if we don't do something soon then the final track can only be true and we (really) are f**king f**ked! Overall in prog terms this could just be written off as there are no extended pieces like The Globalist or Exogenesis Symphony. However it very much floats my boat and flows very nicely.

MUSE, MUSE controversial because they bring people to stadiums, says it all. The band that is also capable of creating unstoppable melodies that everyone thinks they've heard before, MUSE is that band that bothers because many don't want to see the prog blood flowing in it...and the most interesting thing is that are those who criticize and who have not listened to it, misery!!

'Will of the People' frenetic pop with an unstoppable rhythm, a synthetic sound that risks making the first fans leave but making those who understand their approach stay. Aerial synth for 'Compliance' and killer chorus, the thing to listen to in the stadium... because yes it's one of the last bands to fill the stadiums currently, in short otherwise it's the chorus of hell and... .in the stadium it's just huge. Piano arpeggio for 'Liberation' and a voice like MERCURY from the QUEENs, it's grandiloquent but that's how it is, MUSE pumps high, does it excessively and assumes it, magnificent. 'Won't Stand Down' goes back to that heavy synthetic sound, its current sound which means that this band is still snubbed by the progs who will inevitably die without questioning themselves and will not have understood MUSE, sorry!! The riff is good, the phrasing catchy, so why sulk? 'Ghosts (How Can I Move On)' an unstoppable, overstated yet beautiful piano melody; the opportunity to insist on the fact that Matthew is not only a good guitarist! 'You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween' entertaining little nursery rhyme, fresh as the morning dew a bit saucy and cinematic. 'Kill or Be Killed' when MUSE meets METALLICA and it goes immensely well, no matter what; the 2nd title which makes this album a must. 'Verona' and her electro, cathedral voice, MUSE is also that, they know what it takes to find the right melody, even with a simple keyboard, 3rd beautiful title! (Small digression for those who don't see beauty, it's often much simpler than you think and closer to you without realizing it.) 'Euphoria' returns to the MUSE sound with amplified, layered and phrasing that risks exploding in all directions; So prog or not, related?! "We Are Fucking Fucked" well it's said! A last title that does not cause me, like what I do not find any good. A little grated phrasing I think yes I am proguous too; The break is on the other hand completely barred and pleasant, taking up a little madness in the concentrate of the title.

MUSE has made an album that really isn't that bad, that takes the liberty of sending you very far in a track even if it's only 3 minutes long; Today's prog will go through this time restriction in the titles, MUSE that some have confessed to me saying 'it's not terrible' when they hadn't listened to it... where is the world going?