Muse: Will of the People Review Oozing With Paranoia and Chaos – Music Feeds

Muses Will of the People is Music Feeds Album of the Week. Tiana Speter reviews.

Muse have been making a living blasting social, technological, and interpersonal dystopias since exploding into the mainstream at the turn of the century. It seems inevitable that the British trio would emerge from years of global unrest armed with an album that leans heavily into these themes. But while Muses ninth album,Will of the People, goes hard on the alarm-raising fanfare, its also an authentic snapshot of the current state of the world.

Blending elements from Queen and Radiohead with prog experimentation and straight-up bombast, Muse have outlasted many of their contemporaries largely through taking steep diversions from album to album. Theyve embraced concept albums, made excursions into dubstep and rock opera, and built an identity founded in predictable unpredictability.

WithWill of the People, the band shed the fictionalised aspects of 2018sSimulation Theory in favour of something that chimes with the current news cycle. Many tracks here ooze with paranoia and chaos, but theres also a lot of fun to be found in this soundtrack to the apocalypse.

Will Of The People is a whirlwind of genres, with metal, glam rock, synthpop and arena rock all contributing to the mix across the albums 38 minutes. In the wrong hands, thisgenre-cluster might lead to self-implosion, but with front personMatt Bellamy at his larger-than-life best throughout, the grandiosity feels like a familiar friend returning home to deliver some hysterical messages.

Opening track, Will Of The People, is a stomping call to arms that borrows the chugging beat from Marilyn Mansons The Beautiful People; Wont Stand Down and Kill Or Be Killed hint at the sonic acrobatics of earlier Muse. Amid Bellamys trademark falsetto, Chris Wolstenholmes fuzzy bass and Dom Howards thunderous drums, there are lashings of ethereal piano and heavy metal guitar playing, including a Van Halen-aping solo on standout track You Make Me Feel Like Its Halloween.

Bellamys lyrics encompass Black Lives Matter, wildfires, political discourse, the COVID-19 pandemic, online vitriol, and even the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.The album closes with We Are Fucking Fucked, the title of which is a blunt summary of the agenda Muse have long pursued. But in 2022, these paranoid political themes feel especially salient, even given the surrounding sonic absurdity.

Will Of The People may at times be overdressed for dinner, but it isnt your average pandemic moan and groan. As Bellamy himself declares, Welcome to the desecration, baby / Well build you right up and well tear you down / Welcome to the celebration, baby / The chances are turning, this future is ours. If this is how the world ends, its with a bang, not a whimper.

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Muse: Will of the People Review Oozing With Paranoia and Chaos - Music Feeds