I'm talking about one Matt Bellamy, a skinny dude from Devon, England, with a booming voice, a booming-er laugh, and a glass-shattering falsetto. He's the frontman of the band, responsible for the guitar and lead vocals and piano.
Boy, does he rock the piano. Elsewhere, Dom Howard is on drums, and Chris Wolstenholme is on bass. So what makes Muse different from other mega-bands like U2 or The Killers? I'm hesitant to use the word edgy, but they certainly don't have as clean a history, or path to success. The Muse legacy is littered with fucking up and fucking around. From the now-legendary video of Dom making fun of Slipknot so hard that Matt nearly threw up from laughing:. View Iframe URL. To Muse's persistent penchant for fucking with any TV show host who dares ask them to lip-sync:.
Unlike a lot of huge global acts, Muse grew into its hyper-popular current form slowly but steadily. Their first three albums, Showbiz , Origin of Symmetry, and Absolution, built them a devoted fanbase and some modest hits. You most certainly know songs like "Time Is Running Out" and "Hysteria" from Absolution , even if you think you don't.
Somewhere around —, after the release of their album Black Holes and Revelations , things kicked up a notch and they were catapulted into A-list-band territory. Muse had bona fide, lab-grown hits like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Starlight," and a certified prestige spaghetti Western banger in "Knights of Cydonia. And it's been smooth sailing from there. Yes and no. They're a global name now, and The Resistance , their follow-up to Black Holes and Revelations , had some good shit.
But there were cracks beginning to show in the schtick. See for yourself:. Even the vocals had completely lost the emotive quality from the previous releases.
The band seemed to have gotten a bit full of themselves, and a lot more commercial. I weathered Twilight, but this seemed more like a sell out. Of course, my boyfriend decides to independently discover Muse at this time, and very excitedly "introduces" me to them. A few days before tickets go on sale for a gig in our city. Of course we go. Obsession rekindled while introducing him to all of the other albums and my favorite songs.
I even start to like a few songs on TR. But just a few. Hopes crushed after hearing Survival and Madness. End up liking the album just fine; it's got the same sterile, emotionless delivery as TR, but at least the songs were a lot more fun. Everyone grows up, I guess. Probably the height of my obsession, or at least equal to Abso's release, but is utterly derailed by yet another old coworker, and the band's attitude towards its fans.
At least the US ones. Had to really face all the attachments I'd put into a band, and how super immature I now felt about it. Boyfriend drags me off six months later to another gig, and I am suddenly right back to as obsessed as I ever was. Obsessed all the way through the Drones pre-release. Try really hard not to talk about Muse so much in front of my boyfriend.
Still don't want him to know how mental I am. The album doesn't let me down, though other than some questionable lyrics, and I'm completely blown away that they've recaptured what I loved about Abso in terms of themes, quality, and emotive vocals, while not feeling like they regressed or copied it.
And Matt's voice has just developed into something really wonderful. The US tour on the other hand, is a colossal disappointment; the US stuff rears its head again; not being able to get tickets to the Mayan emotionally crippled me for way too long. I LOVE this album. Even when I could not have been angrier at the band, or when I was bawling my eyes out over the Psycho Tour, I loved this album, and it's not changed this whole time.
But, I can't help but think the band has gotten a bit too into their fame. The stage shows are way out of control, the setlists are bloated with filler and playback, highly choreographed and the band feels like it stopped caring about their fans long ago in favor of the trappings of fame, and the associated sycophants. I'm absolutely worried, after Matt pointed out that Mutt did a great job at producing emotive vocals, that that was one good thing attributed to the producer, and Matt is not going to be able to replicate it again on his own, meaning they really have lost it.
Watching a band go through the motions on stage as much as this one did all too often this tour is crushing. It's a weird place to be, because I know if I continue to like their output, the likelihood of my ever seeing them live again is pretty nil. I couldn't possibly justify paying and travelling to see them play in the US ever again, and unless I win the lotto without buying a ticket, I'll never be able to afford a trip to Europe nor would I spend that much to see a band that can't be bothered to play a decent set in my homeland.
I love the music as much as I ever did. Love chatting about the songs and themes of them still. Pre My cousins were very much into Muse, and probably even have accounts on here without me knowing they introduced me to Plug In Baby, and I couldn't get over the guitar riff, but I was still slowly getting into music itself - I'd never been that musical when I was young.
I thought it was insanely catchy so I downloaded it along with Plug In Baby. I then heard Starlight and it became my favourite song purely because of the piano melody. I went to the first night of Wembley, and it was the best night of my life as I had bought all of their albums by then - Stockholm Syndrome was, and still is, my number one favourite song.
The boys were unstoppable and could do no wrong. I was happy to hear new stuff, but after the honeymoon period was over I kind of fell out of love with it. I went to a few more gigs as usual and loved all of them, and I remember watching Glastonbury and Reading on TV like an excitable child apart from having the majority of the Origin set taken away from the BBC Three coverage. The shock of Unsustainable, the craziness of Survival, and the divisiveness of Madness were all hot topics.
Being at university at the time, the album will always have a special place in my heart as it reminds me of those times. I also remember refusing to leave the house to go out until the War Child gig coverage had ended - the excitement of seeing everyone react to Dead Star both at the gig and on the board was brilliant.
The Etihad Stadium gig was also incredible. I love this album, it didn't let me down mostly , but I do struggle to listen to it at times due to going through a tough break up not long after its release, and memories of my ex are attached to the songs.
In time that will pass, but I still come here every so often when I can, and I'll still keep up to speed with setlists and other discussions. However, seeing my tenth Muse gig last month, the show was great as always, but it felt a bit stale in the midsection - I just hope it's not my subconscious telling me that I've been to enough Muse gigs and they don't excite me as much any more.
If they shake up the setlist like they did for Download and Manchester Academy, then I will be among the first in the queue for those types of shows. Used to absolutely adore them pre-resistance era, would watch every interview, every live performance, no band even came close. Now with each album release and tour my excitement has diminished a fair amount. When I really think about it they simply don't excite me the way they used to, their albums are just bland and their live shows with exceptions are just boring and lack any sort of emotion.
I can't really see my opinion changing much in the future because I simply cannot see them changing their style or attitude towards their music. Ultimately I think Starlight was the one where it all changed, the one where I actually felt really sad and ranted about 'why did they want to be U2' on here Its so odd meeting younger people, as a lot have no idea about Muse doing stuff like that.
Just this cheesy dated rock band to them. Its even weirder when they're like emo kids or at least were , happy to rave about Relationship Of Command or whatever iconic early 00's albums and have never OOSed. Yeah man they were the coolest back then, so much energy, so much sparkle. I preferred them when they didn't have a Thing, even their own tour programmes couldn't describe their music, they were just like, scrappy young fools trying everything and smashing it I was talking about this with Dave this morning - I watched their Manchester show the other day and MAN was I bored, skipped so much of it.
They hardly move anymore I know Matt's got a dodgy foot and that, but And he still sounds knackered too, imo. I was like, 'We were saying online about how they don't have any energy anymore When we're onstage we fucking have it every time.
And we are more jaded, fatter than them and have dayjobs. I played a gig on fucking crutches! And I hate playing them. Liz: Every day. All the way to work and all the way home. How do they make you feel? Liz: Good and happy. You say something, Dave. Dave: Yeah they do a good light show. You'd be amazed how many people have told me how much they enjoy the staging and the lights. I felt magnetically drawn to them. Noisey: Hey! How you doing? How long have you been into Muse?
Since I was at school, really. I got into them when they started getting really big. When I was a kid I used to get up early to do a paper round and watch Scuzz or Kerrang! Yeah, definitely. If Matt Bellamy died tonight and you had to replace him with somebody, who would it be? No one could replace him.
What brings you here? My sons are. I wanted to ground them in metal and rock. Do you think Muse are up there with the greats? And I started to almost feel jealous of that. However, after my evening of probing the Supermassive Musers — which I am calling them but they do not call themselves — I did feel slightly closer to understanding who might go and see Muse and why. The general consensus was that Muse made people feel more powerful or uplifted. Sign Out.
Tags: vulture homepage lede music muse doomsayers. Most Viewed Stories.
0コメント