The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

As long time readers know, I love the band Muse. I fell in love with their music the first time I heard it 15+ years ago. Since then I've been borderline obsessed with them. While I've given several contemporary rock groups a gander in the years since, no one has come close to catching the excitement I felt when I discovered said British trio. That is until I stumbled upon The Warning, who, coincidentally enough, I heard about on a Muse subreddit 4 years ago - and I can confidently declare, without question, this is the most excited I've been about a group since Muse a decade and a half ago. For those unfamiliar with the band, let me tell you a bit about them. They're three sisters from Mexico, who first gained fame 10 years ago, when they - aged 9 to 14 - went viral for their cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" on YouTube. From 2015 through 2022, they released 3 LPs and 2 EPs, with each being better than the last. Their sounds have varied, from '80s-...

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...

I was reading a review the other day and the critic graded an album with a "C+" or in numerical form - 6/12. Wouldn't 6 out of 12 warrant an average "C" grade? Wouldn't the breakdown be something like this? (out of 12) 6 = C 7 = C+ 8 = B- 9 = B 10 = B+ 11 = A- 12 = A/A+ Well, I must be going. I'm about to write a review and grade an album a perfect 5 out of 5 stars - in other words, a C grade.