Concert critic Thor Christensen of Dallas News wrote another laughable review of a Muse concert. It was the third such review I've seen about the band's shows in as many weeks.
The paragraph which I found to be the most unintentionally humorous was the following:
"The closer you listened to Muse's ostentatious music, however, the less interesting the show became. Borrowing way too heavily from U2, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Metallica, the group came off like a human iPod shuffle. Don't care for Metallica? Just wait three minutes and Muse will now attempt to sound like Coldplay."
Okay, so the Radiohead comparisons have been there since the band's inception. However, to this day, I still don't hear a strong similarity. The one similarity I notice and which I think has gotten more attention than it deserves is the fact that the two band's lead singers (Thom Yorke for Radiohead and Matthew Bellamy for Muse) have great vocal ranges and utilize the falsetto fairly regularly. That's a rarity anymore in rock music. However, I still hear a stark difference in the two men's actual singing voices. They may both love the falsetto, but if I took an audio test on the two men's voices, I can almost guarantee I'd earn a 100% grade for being able to differentiate one from the other. Bellamy has stated that Jeff Buckley was actually an influence to he and the band, not Yorke and Radiohead.
As he stated, "There are elements where we've been influenced by a lot of the same things (Muse and Radiohead being influenced by Buckley and other artists), but not influenced by them (Radiohead)..."
U2 and Pink Floyd have certainly played an influence on Muse, U2 most notably in a couple songs from Muse's most recent album, The 2nd Law. However, these influences aren't so great that when I hear a Muse song, I have to think for longer than a split-second on whom the artist performing the song actually is. Regardless of their influence, Muse brings a unique and quality sound to their songs.
So, Thor went the trendy-but-largely-inaccurate route with the Radiohead comparison and the partially-accurate-but-exaggerated route with the U2 and Pink Floyd comparison. When he wrote that Muse borrowed too heavily from Metallica and followed that with, "Don't care for Metallica? Just wait three minutes and Muse will now attempt to sound like Coldplay.," that may have been one of the dumbest, most ridiculous statements I've ever read a music critic write.
When researching bands' influences (yes, every band has them), guess who lists Muse as an influence to their music but not vice versa? That's right - Metallica and Coldplay. Metallica? Seriously? Yes...because the piano-driven "Explorers" is so reminiscent of "Enter Sandman." "Supermassive Black Hole" sounds an awful lot like "Nothing Else Matters." "Uprising" is basically a remake of "Ain't My B**ch." Oh, and Coldplay... When I think of Muse's heavy-hitting "Stockholm Syndrome," I immediately think of Coldplay's song "Yellow." With ears obviously as awful as Thor's are, I wonder how in the world he became a music critic. I'm guessing his next spot-on comparison is going to be between Eminem and Amy Grant...
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/music/headlines/20130314-review-muse-takes-arena-rock-to-new-heights-of-eye-popping-grandiosity-in-dallas-concert.ece
http://www.musewiki.org/Radiohead
http://www.musewiki.org/Influences
The paragraph which I found to be the most unintentionally humorous was the following:
"The closer you listened to Muse's ostentatious music, however, the less interesting the show became. Borrowing way too heavily from U2, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Metallica, the group came off like a human iPod shuffle. Don't care for Metallica? Just wait three minutes and Muse will now attempt to sound like Coldplay."
Okay, so the Radiohead comparisons have been there since the band's inception. However, to this day, I still don't hear a strong similarity. The one similarity I notice and which I think has gotten more attention than it deserves is the fact that the two band's lead singers (Thom Yorke for Radiohead and Matthew Bellamy for Muse) have great vocal ranges and utilize the falsetto fairly regularly. That's a rarity anymore in rock music. However, I still hear a stark difference in the two men's actual singing voices. They may both love the falsetto, but if I took an audio test on the two men's voices, I can almost guarantee I'd earn a 100% grade for being able to differentiate one from the other. Bellamy has stated that Jeff Buckley was actually an influence to he and the band, not Yorke and Radiohead.
As he stated, "There are elements where we've been influenced by a lot of the same things (Muse and Radiohead being influenced by Buckley and other artists), but not influenced by them (Radiohead)..."
U2 and Pink Floyd have certainly played an influence on Muse, U2 most notably in a couple songs from Muse's most recent album, The 2nd Law. However, these influences aren't so great that when I hear a Muse song, I have to think for longer than a split-second on whom the artist performing the song actually is. Regardless of their influence, Muse brings a unique and quality sound to their songs.
So, Thor went the trendy-but-largely-inaccurate route with the Radiohead comparison and the partially-accurate-but-exaggerated route with the U2 and Pink Floyd comparison. When he wrote that Muse borrowed too heavily from Metallica and followed that with, "Don't care for Metallica? Just wait three minutes and Muse will now attempt to sound like Coldplay.," that may have been one of the dumbest, most ridiculous statements I've ever read a music critic write.
When researching bands' influences (yes, every band has them), guess who lists Muse as an influence to their music but not vice versa? That's right - Metallica and Coldplay. Metallica? Seriously? Yes...because the piano-driven "Explorers" is so reminiscent of "Enter Sandman." "Supermassive Black Hole" sounds an awful lot like "Nothing Else Matters." "Uprising" is basically a remake of "Ain't My B**ch." Oh, and Coldplay... When I think of Muse's heavy-hitting "Stockholm Syndrome," I immediately think of Coldplay's song "Yellow." With ears obviously as awful as Thor's are, I wonder how in the world he became a music critic. I'm guessing his next spot-on comparison is going to be between Eminem and Amy Grant...
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/music/headlines/20130314-review-muse-takes-arena-rock-to-new-heights-of-eye-popping-grandiosity-in-dallas-concert.ece
http://www.musewiki.org/Radiohead
http://www.musewiki.org/Influences
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