Review Summary: It's that time of year again.
I feel like I listen to new releases from Muse out of morbid curiosity. Like watching a true crime documentary, or a session of Prime Minister’s Questions. I listen to a new Muse album because I want to see just how far they’ve sunk. So I was surprised when the Devon trio wrote a genuinely heartfelt and sensitive blurb to accompany the announcement of their ninth LP,
Will Of The People:
‘A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilization of the global order all informed Will Of The People
. This album is a personal navigation through fears and preparation for what comes next.’
I was encouraged, though admittedly through gritted teeth. Muse have never been known for their subtlety, but this was promising. Maybe, after two truly woeful albums, we were going to get something that wasn’t complete self-indulgent dross. I mean, Muse couldn’t possibly sink any lower than previous outing
Simulation Theory, could they?
Put simply, no, they couldn’t.
Simulation Theory has zero good songs, zero genuine quality. Lead single of
Will Of The People, Won’t Stand Down, is a lot of dumb fun, with a genuinely punchy guitar riff and screamed vocals at its climax. Ghosts (How Can I Move On) is Muse at their most heartfelt since The 2nd Law: Isolated System. Listening to closer We Are f
ucking f
ucked, I had an epiphany: my sixteen-year-old self would have absolutely
loved it. It is just close enough to Antivist by Bring Me The Horizon to be enjoyable.
I just don’t
get Will Of The People. The album is directionless, with romantic ballads immediately following guitar breakdowns. Frontman Matt Bellamy’s lyricism is still as woeful as it has always been, with title track Will Of The People having the worst of the lot. The production is all over the place; bassist Chris Wolstenholme seemingly decided to take the day off when recording Kill Or Be Killed. The album as a whole is over before it even begins. Its jarring pacing does nothing to hide its thirty-seven minute runtime, a figure which is shockingly short for an album considering it has had the entirety of the last two years to use as inspiration. Why were they so afraid to flesh it out a little more?
As has been the case with Muse for years, the songs with quality on
Will Of The People are vastly outnumbered by bland and insipid filler tracks. Liberation and You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween are cut from the same dreadful cloth: two by-the-numbers Muse songs that are differentiated only by their lead instruments – piano on the former and church organ on the latter. Second single Compliance is so formulaic and dull that I genuinely thought Muse had released a demo as their follow up to Won’t Stand Down. My disappointment was only amplified by the fact that Won’t Stand Down genuinely is a great Muse song. I guess it’s the hope that kills you.
In a turn of events that I’m sure will delight hardcore Muse fans worldwide,
Will Of The People is better than its predecessors
Drones and
Simulation Theory. But that is the only praise I can give it. It is still not worth a second listen, not even out of morbid curiosity. Muse aren’t quite dead and buried, but they’re trying their absolute hardest to be.
