Muse – ‘Madness’ BBC1 premiere
Please excuse the abundance of Muse on here lately, but they keep releasing material that I keep having mixed opinions about. Here’s another one. I promise this will be quick.
I think it’s my favourite track on the album because it’s just so minimal, stripped back, very simple, self-explanatory…
– Matt Bellamy on BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe show, 20/08/2012
It leaked all over the place before last night’s official premiere. Madness, the freshly unveiled Muse single, is but another addition to the pile of ammunition in the fanbase partition. This time round, however, I find myself lurking about with the disappointed fans that were hoping for something a little more… well, impressive. These boys are so unbelievably talented. This little tune doesn’t really do them justice.
‘Madness’ is a relaxing little ballad, which begins with a somewhat dry ‘wub’, then slowly progresses into a full-on cry of needing to love. I’ll tell you one thing: it is very different. Whether it’s a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ different is entirely up to you; however, to me it seems a little underseasoned; just seems to lack something. But, just as the track itself gradually develops into something that becomes pretty impressive towards the end, hopefully it will inflict that “growing” nature on the skeptics as the repeat button gets hit. It’s not a bad track, and some have likened it to what Undisclosed Desires felt like on their last album, The Resistance: just a little experiment. Indeed, a substantial number of fans believe that this new single is “stunning”.
Bellamy: “When we started out making the album, we were all thinking it would be nice to do something a bit more understated, something that isn’t so overblown… We tend to do things that are very theatrical, just extreme, overbearing sounds… “. But it seems that many were expecting just that: an overblown musical masterpiece without the misleading title, following the “just extreme” ‘Unsustainable’ and more “theatrical” still, ‘Survival’.
Sadly, unlike Undisclosed Desires, this little experiment seems a little underwhelming. Maybe it’s a grower. Maybe.
Please note: Personally, I’m not keen on it only because I don’t like the way it sounds – simple as. I’m not in any way disapproving of the fact that Muse have changed their sound, as I think it’s important for artists to explore new ideas. It would be worse if they had still stuck to the material they made 10 years ago, as that doesn’t show progress. Some will hate this, others will love it and it should purely be an independent opinion.
The 2nd Law is out on 1st October 2012.
It’s a very interesting track and really, I didn’t expect something like that from Muse. I can’t say I dislike it, but definitely it needs to grow on me. Apparently, this band never fail to surprise me. Makes me wanna hear the new record asap.
Oh definitely! The diversity of the sounds we’ve heard so far is really exciting, I think. People are either going to love or hate this new album…
Yeah, judging by all the controversy, it’s a classical love-or-hate record.