Review Summary: The final nail in the coffin.
I feel sorry for Dom Howard. He was never the most technically proficient of drummers but his work on the early Muse albums made a big difference to the power and enjoyment of the songs. It felt like he was actually a member of the band. Now however, he is but an afterthought. On Simulation Theory, Muse's eighth LP, I counted live drums featuring in just over half of the songs. Isn't this lack of playtime a little insulting on the man who is a third of the entire band?
I came to ponder on my first listen that maybe Dom just wanted as little to do with this album as possible. Littered with 80s instrumentation that would make Depeche Mode blush, Simulation Theory does nothing to make Muse any less of a joke. Interesting song structures and powerful choruses are a distant memory. Gone are the days of decent lyricism, gone are the days of Muse releasing a song without that stereotypical
Muse chord. Here to stay are ridiculous out of tune sounding guitar riffs, whoas that are ripped straight out of 30 Seconds to Mars' Walk on Water, and literal radio filler written only to get some airtime.
Fortunately, there are some parts of the album that are decent. Opener Algorithm doesn't really do anything grandiose but it at least feels like it was written with some soul to it. Singles The Dark Side and Pressure, while again feeling slightly formulaic, are enjoyable to listen to. It must be said though that I genuinely thought that Pressure was a rehash of Supermassive Black Hole when I first heard it. The guitar tone is very similar and the distorted
PRESSURE BUILDING vocal line is so similar to the distorted
SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE vocal line that it almost seems intentionally ripped off. It's all very lazy feeling.
The laziness continues later into the album. The vocal melody in the chorus of Blockades is identical to the vocal melody in Uprising. Another of the singles, Dig Down, sounds very reminiscent of Madness, one of my guilty pleasures from The 2nd Law. And, as stated before, the whoas in Thought Contagion are so egregious that when I first heard the song I confused it for a 30 Seconds to Mars stadium anthem. Is this a bad thing? Perhaps not, but for a band that has been selling out stadiums for the past decade, it seems strange that Muse would resort to writing such bland arena rock.
The biggest problem with Simulation Theory is the lack of cohesion. Get Up and Fight is a by-the-numbers rock ballad with a few diminished chords thrown in, which then goes straight into Blockades, probably the most abrasive song on the album. The dichotomy of the two songs is so jarring that it takes away any flow that the album could have built up. It
then runs into Dig Down, which begins quietly but slowly becomes more and more Queen until it bursts into full Mercury, complete with gospel choir and over the top guitar licks. The album just can't stay in one place, it's as if Muse couldn't decide whether to go all out on the 80s vapourwave vibe or not.
Simulation Theory is a joke. A laughable mess of half-baked ideas and ridiculous, pompous arrogance. Matt Bellamy thinks that teal-pink contrasts and Lamborghini Countaches are still very much cool things. Matt Bellamy thinks that rehashing old ideas in an 80s style will create a good album. For a band that I once used to herald as my favourite in the world, I now find it hard to admit that I ever liked Muse in the first place. They've become stale and embarrassing, with very few redeeming qualities, if at all. I feel sorry for Dom Howard. He's had to witness this from the inside, watching as his contributions get less and less recognition. I can't wait till the next Muse album which'll just be a big picture of Matt Bellamy giving his bandmates the finger.
