The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

British rock trio Muse just released their 9th studio album, entitled Will of the People . Now, I've gotta start this review by admitting to all my readers I'm a die-hard Muse fan. They are, without question, my favorite band - have been for roughly 14-15 years. Having said that, while I've enjoyed their past three albums (2012's The 2nd Law , 2015's Drones , and 2018's Simulation Theory ), I've also felt they were three of the band's four weakest releases to this point (their 1999 debut Showbiz being the other). The 2nd Law felt like the band's most experimental record, where they marked all the genres they wanted to try off their bucket list. Not only did they dabble in dub-step, but bassist Chris Wolstenholme wrote and sang two songs. On a 12-song album, singer Matt Bellamy was the lead vocalist on only eight of them. While I'm all about Muse experimenting, and loved the variety, it felt a little more mixed on the execution than I would have...

Last week, I posted a blog where I criticized Timeout.com 's Oliver Keens for a review he wrote for British prog rock group Muse's latest album, Drones . I use the term review loosely because Keens didn't spend any time reviewing the actual music on the album. No, he decided to go on a rant about what he perceived the concept of the album to be, being mistaken on that front, and leaving many to wonder if he listened to the album at all. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't the only one who disapproved of this piece of writing, and felt the need to share people's criticism of this review's criticism. First off, here again is Oliver Keens' review of Drones , where he gave the album one out of a possible five stars:   "It's a shame that Matt Bellamy  (the band's singer and song writer)  has never been to North Waziristan. If he had, he'd know first-hand how this area of Pakistan is to drones what lamps are to moths. He'd have seen how the notion of a...

With British alternative rock trio Muse's new (concept) album Drones  becoming available worldwide today, the reviews have been pouring in, and thus far, the album has garnered a "critical acclaim" score of 81 at the review site  Metacritic . Kerrang! gave the album a perfect score, adding that it's "a claustrophobic classic that sharpens the focus of what is possible in the name of high-minded rock." Evening Standard  wrote that "Drones is the fearsome sound of Muse at their monumental best." Rock Sound said that "Drones sees one of the UK's most ambitious rock bands returning to what they do best." The Observer wrote that Drones is "fist-pumpingly ace, a timely restatement of the need for popular music to evoke both thought and dopamine rush." As usual, though, not all the reviews were positive. Most of the mixed reviews made valid points each way, but there was one negative review I read which could very well go...

A week ago, the British rock band Muse released their sixth studio album - this by the title of "The 2nd Law," as in the second law of thermodynamics. As is quoted from a song on the album - "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable": " All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases. Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted, and useless. New energy cannot be created and high-grade energy is being destroyed." Like all other Muse albums, this one takes a different turn in terms of sound. As a matter of fact, it takes several different turns, as I will describe below with a track-by-track breakdown: 1) "Supremacy": What's Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" + a dark James Bond theme song + Matthew Bellamy's false...