Muse - The Resistance

Muse, everyone's favorite Orwellian rock band, has released their fifth studio album The Resistance yesterday. I'm suffering from a bit of writer's block, but I wanted to do a track by track review because bands this awesome don't just grow on trees anymore. Also, I always like to take a little credit for their success here in the US since I brought Absolution back from the UK and distributed it to several folks well before they started receiving any radio play here. Enough with the poorly written intro, onto the review:

Uprising - Glenn Beck has claimed this as the anthem of the teabagger movement saying its an attack on Obama. He doesn't get most things. Muse were writing the same anti-Big Brother lyrics before anyone outside of Chicago knew who Barack Obama was. Musically, if you've never heard a Muse song before, this is a good intro. The vocals and music sum the band up nicely & its the best track on the CD.

Resistance - The chanting seems to come out of nowhere, but its not a big part of the song. Its more strange than anything. Other than that, the song is great. The 2nd best song on the disc (fitting since it is track 2).

Undisclosed Desires - I'm a little 'meh' on this one. Think Supermassive Black Hole without the falsetto. For some reason it reminds me of Mary J. Blige.

United States of Eurasia (+Colateral Damage) - As they tend to do from time to time, the band turns the epic up to eleven here. There's a Queen vibe mixed in with Arabian sounding piano music and still more Big Brother lyrics. After building to crescendo, Matt Bellamy winds it back down with a piano solo before closing with a jet flyover. All in all, pretty good.

Guiding Light - The band manages to successfully pay homage to 80's music without doing a cheesy impersonation of it (I'm looking at you Fall Out Boy). Solid track.

Unnatural Selection - They dip their toe back into the rock pool here, but maintain a strong electronic sound. Someone online said they heard a little Led Zeppelin here. I don't really hear it, but its still a good song.

MK Ultra - This is probably the most overtly rock track the band has recorded since Absolution. Nothing too fancy, just hard guitars and strong vocals.

I Belong to You (+Mon Coeur S'ouvre a ta Voix) - I'm not sure what to think about this one. Its OK, but I feel like I should give them points for effort. Any modern rock track with a bit of French opera in it deserves that much. There is nothing sadder for a fan than when a band quits trying. That was the biggest problem with the latest U2 CD. It was mailed in. Say what you will about Muse, or this track in particular, they always go for broke.

Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture) - Speaking of going for broke, track 9 begins the three song "symphony" to close out the CD. This first part is big on being spacey, light on content.

Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination) - The first part was pretty unimpressive, so I was a little wary of the remainder of the "symphony". I didn't need to be. Part 2 completely redeems the concept and restores my faith in humanity.

Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 (Redemption) - The disc and "symphony" wrap up with something that carefully balances the spacey of part 1 with the angst of part 2. A fitting end to one of the year's best CDs.

Overall, probably an 8 out of 10. Even the couple tracks that miss at least have the decency to miss big. If you give it a listen, I insist you do so when you can turn the volume up properly. I look forward to hearing the material live when they go on tour.