Ever since the Twilight baseball scene, which I will never voluntarily view, music fans can’t ignore the once thought underground English rock band Muse. Their song featured in the movie, “Supermassive Black Hole”, introduced Muse to an entirely new audience, one that even surpassed their fame from the music video for “Knights of Cydonia”, a radio-only release that exceeded everyone’s expectations. The alternative rockers from the seaside town of Teignmouth have since obtained superstar status and their brand new album could all but solidify their place at the top. “The Resistance”, Muse’s 5th album, much awaited by new and long-time fans is out with some vintage and not so vintage Muse. The album is a string of cleverly titled tracks ending in a finale comprised of three songs entitled “Exogenesis” symphonies, a risky statement for any band. 

   If you have any strong ties to Billy Idol, you will probably hate “Uprising”. An eerily similar to “White Wedding” 80’s synthesizer melody plays throughout the song, along with a Idolized guitar riff to match. “Resistance”, the title track is okay, but an anonymous passerby did describe it as the song played “at the end credits of a bad Japanese video game,” I would probably say Kingdom Hearts. One track that I really had high hopes for was “United States of Eurasia/ Collateral Damage”, it had a cool title, and really is a great song until they borrow from Queen a minute and a half into the song, but never really give the credit back to Freddy Mercury and Company.  I will say, in contrast to the other songs, “Exogenesis: Symphony 1 (Overture)” blew me away, that was what I had been waiting for, a culmination of what should be expected from the band.  But then, I became disillusioned again as the string of symphonies dwindled to an end with a last ditch effort to copy Queen and above all else, Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 4” or the “Moonlight” Sonata. (If you play them next to each other it’s as if they had the sheet music with them in the recording studio)

  By the end of the album I began to wonder if Muse had made a tribute album, like a big surprise, but I had too high of hopes even then. If you don’t mind compromising originality, and you’ve already bought tickets to Twilight Saga: New Moon, buy this album now.