#t2l album

[sunburnacoustic]

Muse’s Matt Bellamy: ‘I felt that we could do no wrong. Obviously, we could’

By Mikael Wood in the L.A. Times (pasted because paywalls)

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Matt Bellamy wrote Muse’s new album in a Santa Monica recording studio painstakingly decorated to resemble the so-called red room from “Twin Peaks.”

Crimson curtains, leather armchairs, black-and-white zigzag flooring: The 44-year-old frontman of one of England’s biggest rock bands reproduced every detail of the otherworldly chamber from the cult-fave TV show he remembers devouring during Muse’s first tour on a bus back in the early 2000s.

“It just sets a certain tone, you know?” he says, looking around the space with obvious pride on a recent afternoon.

Yet as Bellamy sat composing amid a thicket of electric guitars and vintage synths — including an old Roland model he says was the same used for the “Stranger Things” theme — what really inspired him was the tumult unfolding outside the studio, which he observed through an enormous one-way mirror in the building’s front wall.

This was mid-to-late 2020: Bellamy, who’s written for years about the menacing encroachments of technology and government, watched (without those on the street being able to see inside) as shops went out of business during the pandemic, as Black Lives Matter protesters marched through the city, as riot-gear-clad police and National Guard moved in to shut down demonstrations, as a man took up residence in a car parked right in front of the studio. Helicopters seemed to be circling constantly; a drone hovered over Bellamy one day as he loaded gear in through a back door.

“It was like being inside a scene from ‘RoboCop,’” he says now. “All the anxieties and the dystopian strangeness that had always been kind of speculative in our music — suddenly it felt like it was all coming true. It was actually happening.”

The result of his observations is Muse’s ninth studio album, “Will of the People,” on which Bellamy rhymes “a life in crisis” with “a deadly virus” and “tsunamis of hate are gonna drown us.” (Sample song titles include “Kill or Be Killed” and “We Are Fucking Fucked.”) But if the LP confronts a brave new world, it also knowingly looks back: Musically, the band—rounded out by bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard—dials down the fluorescent electro-pop vibe of 2018’s “Simulation Theory” in favor of the harder, more guitar-oriented sound that made Muse a prog-metal sensation more than two decades ago.

Muse performing in Philadelphia in 2013. (Owen Sweeney / Invision via AP)

What are those so-called worst parts of Muse? Probably a tendency to veer off and experiment in areas that we’re not very experienced in. Most of [2012’s] “The 2nd Law,” for instance — classical dubstep, weird clarinet solos, whatever else is on that album. I think we felt we’d achieved so much with [the 2009 hit] “Uprising” that we could do no wrong. Obviously, we could.

You produced “Will of the People” yourself after collaborating with the producer Shellback on “Simulation Theory” and with Mutt Lange on 2015’s “Drones.” With people like that who are so successful, I think sometimes we’ve gone in the studio and been a little bit like, “OK, we’ll do just whatever you say.” In hindsight, I wish I’d been more involved and put more of our stamp on it. So we’ve kind of gone back to our safe space on this album. If we’re in complete control, it may not be the most cutting-edge or the most modern-sounding thing, but it’s the only way to guarantee that we’re gonna love it.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

June 2020 was a heck of a time to bring a baby into the world. I came to America in 2010 as a single person looking to experience L.A. for a bit — and, boy, have I had an experience. Ended up with a Hollywood actress [Kate Hudson], had a baby together and the whole cliché scenario of the ups and downs of celebrity life. Then married a Texan [model Elle Evans] and had another baby. Been evacuated from my house during wildfires. Then the pandemic and the full January 6 Trump meltdown. It’s just been an unbelievable period to be here.

“Will of the People” suggests it hasn’t left you terribly optimistic about the future. It depends what your definition of optimism is. To me there’s a fighting spirit in the music, which is a form of optimism. It’s like the moment in “Rocky” when Adrian tells Rocky to win.

Do you think it’s clear to listeners who you’re fighting? In the new song “Compliance,” you’re singing sarcastically about people falling into line and doing as they’re told. It could be interpreted as an anti-woke anthem. I never thought about it that way. I thought about it in terms of the rising authoritarianism that we’re now seeing is a real thing— Trump in this country, but also Putin and the China situation. These ideologies, I feel like we kind of tested the waters in the 20th century and realized that fascism and communism are both just absolute disasters and that we don’t need to go near that stuff ever again. And yet it’s emerging.

What’s your reaction to that? I have an anti-authoritarian nature. My parents say that when I was a young child I was never very good at being told what to do. I don’t like the idea of vast centralized power that’s very far away from where I live. I come from Devon in England, which is a couple hundred miles from London. But when I went to see where my wife’s from in Paris, Texas, it’s like, Holy s—! It’s thousands of miles from the places of power in America. So the resistance to someone deciding how I should live who has no idea what my day-to-day life is — I can understand it, even though there’s a risk of it being hijacked by more extremist factions that have gone down roads I don’t agree with.

Have you considered becoming a U.S. citizen? I have. Overall, I actually think the United States’ structure is really amazing, with all the different ways to make laws at the local level. It seems like every month my wife is voting on some sort of proposition. I’m looking at that going, Wow, England is so behind on that front. We don’t ever get to vote on policy.

The oddest thing about that late-2020 period where things in America and California seemed so chaotic and crazy was that I felt my connection deepening. There’s something going on here that is critical to what’s happening in the entire world. America has become a kind of center point for this idea that there’s an empire on the verge of collapse, and how do we save it? Or how do we know which parts to save and which parts to let fall away?

For some people — Dom, to some extent — it made them want to get out. But for me it had the opposite effect. It’s everything I’m interested in, and it’s massively creatively inspiring.

Has becoming wealthy shaped your political views? I don’t think so. I remember all my feelings of what it was to be from a poor rural background with no opportunities and all the disadvantages. And I still have some views that would be considered pretty socialist by some. Universal health care is an obvious one; I can’t even believe there’s not universal healthcare here. I’ve also come to the view that maybe land shouldn’t be privately owned.

Can you relate to music that’s unambiguously joyful? Coldplay, let’s say. Absolutely. Chris [Martin] is a friend of mine. I love what they do. I wish I could write more songs that enter the love sphere. But I think it might be against the nature of the sounds our band makes. When the three of us are jamming, it’s like Rage Against the Machine riffs are coming out all the time. I can’t imagine hearing those riffs with Chris Martin singing about peace and love on top.

What’s the happiest Muse song? “Starlight” is pretty positive. I think “Verona” on the new album is pretty nice — little bit of “Romeo and Juliet” in there.

Do you think rock music is in good hands with the generation behind yours? My 11-year-old son likes Slipknot and Metallica. My stepson Ryder from a previous situation [with Hudson], he’s 18 and he’s really into rock. He turned me on to Willow Smith.

Can you envision touring in your 60s and 70s like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones? Yeah, but Metallica is the one that’s really made me think we could do it. The Stones and McCartney, they have universally uplifting music. But Metallica — I’m not sure how old they are, but they’re up there — that’s really heavy music and they’re still out there. The great thing about rock is that, even though the genre is largely irrelevant in the mainstream, you can actually grow old with it. You can make a real life career.

[citizenerased77]

okay okay things are getting WILD over by the song polls section. since everyone's up in arms about it i figured i'd share some of my pwopaganda

*before i continue i'd just like to make it clear that i mean no disrespect towards anyone and if it comes across that way please let me know. i'm just rambling because i have nothing better to do atm

i was looking through the polls and for the most part those with an older muse song pitted against a more recent one results in the older one winning. by a long shot. why is that?

the old "___'s music gets progressively worse as they age/continue" is rearing its ugly head. now it's one thing to say that you don't like a band's most recent work or something along the lines of that. but it;s another thing entirely to say that a band's music gets worse over the years.

bands don't reach a peak and then decline. or plateau. it's simply not how it works. muse didn't stop getting better after a specific album, you just stopped liking their music after a specific album. to say that their music declined after T2L (just an example) would be like saying that all of the star wars movies after empire suck. sure that's your opinion, but someone else could come along and argue that the franchise peaked at the force awakens. and you have to respect their opinion even if you don't agree with it.

i guess what i'm trying to get at is that drones is just as good of an album as BHAR. and that get up and fight is equal to glorious. or that coma and eternally missed are both amazing b-sides. because you could ask a million different people, and you'll get a whole hodgepodge of answers.

just because the song is newer doesn't mean it's worse. just because you don't like the direction a band is going in sound-wise doesn't make it bad.

since the polls are all randomized, some of them contain songs of different styles. at the end of the day it's which song gives the voter the better feels lmao

[uno-whatimean]

Ugh sometimes I get so annoyed at the muse fandom on other socials. Muse's songs and albums are so diverse and there is something for everyone to enjoy. But god forbid you have an opinion/preference that doesn't fit in with the whole oos and abso are superior and anyone who disagrees with this 'fact' is wrong and an inferior person and not even a real fan blah blah.

You prefer oos and abso? Good for you. You prefer T2L or ST? Good for you. Your muse tastes has nothing to do with anyone else, and anyone else's muse tastes has nothing to do with you.

I am So Sick of seeing people post an opinion only to have the oos/abso lovers shit all over them. Nobody should be shamed for liking different muse songs or albums. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be part of this fandom.

Fortunately I don't see that kinda toxic crap on here. Museblr may be small but it's nice here. We just love muse and that's all that matters.

[baenningtons]

[youll-wake-the-thot-police]

Muse album palettes generated through Animal Crossing Patterns

Showbiz

2. Origin of Symmetry

3. Hullabaloo

4. Absolution

5. Black Holes and Revelations

6. The Resistance

7. The 2nd Law

8. Drones

9. Simulation Theory

[starboymp3]

my twinnie bought me a muse album 😭😭😭💖💖💖 when she brings it home it will be the FOURTH muse cd i’ll ownnn hhhhhhhhh!!!!!! i mean well technically its gonna be the third cause theres one i still dont actually Own but the girl i asked to buy it for me already has it i just have to get it from her but we literally never meet so. rip. anyways i now have simulation theory, the resistance and drones,,, and showbiz if that girl ever gives it to me uwu

[exogenetics-symphony]

Muse albums

[halfd3af]

So I kept procrastinating on listening to four or so songs on The 2nd Law and HOLY SHIT I did not know I needed dubstep Muse in my life. Follow Me and the duo T2L songs, plus Liquid State… they FUCK. Simulation Theory is definitely one of my top favorite albums, so hearing how it got it’s beginnings back in 2012 is sooooo good. I love when Muse does crazy shit, and that’s probably cause I grew up only hearing songs off The Resistance, which is definitely another top favorite album.

[esorydoolb]

wait why am I posting about this Muse band again? idk, I’ve been listening to rock music again lately and new songs coincidentally means they’ve been on my mind and I needed to get those thoughts out sooo here goes ….

I’ve been trying really hard to hate the new direction of their music I’m not gonna lie. I think that anything they released after T2L has been a beginning spiral downwards musically. If an album has more than 2 pop songs on it, it’s arguably a sign for me to turn it off. Is it a matter of musical taste? Probably, but man I listen to a variety of music and if I find something I like about it, I don’t care how electronic it sounds!

Disclaimer while I am a musician myself, I don’t really know much about music theory and composing so I kind of, you know, judge based on my intuition. I love it when their music does something new, experimental and creative, but I also think it loses some of their authenticity when Muse try to sound entirely different from usual. I think that’s quite normal… But man, the typical “Muse sound”, that people like to point out persists in all of their music, sounds more like a stale copy of themselves to me. There’s something about their new music that just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I notice that it lacks the passion of the old Muse.

As an afterthought, I think it became quite obvious to me that their new music kind of leaves me cold and unimpressed during their Simulation Theory tour. I was literally rocking my socks off during Plug in Baby, Uprising, etc. and two minutes later, Mercy and Dig Down came on and I was watching with a kinda bitter smile how people lost their shit at the confetti show. Haha look at them having fun, why do I feel so out of place right now. And I stress that I don’t believe it’s because of the different style of music. (I really enjoy the uplifting tone of Defector for example.)

So about their new songs. There’s so much going on there and at the same time, I don’t particularly remember any of it. Initially, I was quite impressed by the direction of WSD, I mean wow they really handled those heavy vocals and riffs. But it’s like Matt said ‘Hey look at the fun stuff I can do, let’s use some of that on the new album’ (and maybe cater to some type of audience simultaneously who knows) instead of saying: this is the new sound I came up with, take it or hate it, it’s mine now. I talked about authenticity before, the kind of raw quality that cannot be produced by messing about in the studio. At least that’s the kind of signals I’m getting, I’m sure it isn’t intentional.

I still think that Compliance is a “good” song, and Muse are decidedly good at producing solid tracks, however what I’m trying to say is that they’re not writing music, fantastic music that completely hooks me and pulls me in and puts me in awe. What’s with using the same simple chord progression for four minutes straight, hardly any range in the vocals to grab onto, no musical or even thematic progression, the lyrics all sound the same, … Yeah, it’s pretty easy to listen to, and it’s the same kind of easy that leaves me quite emotionless and vaguely nodding along to the beat.

Not every track has to be a masterpiece. (Well, with knowing Muse, there’s a certain incredibly high expectation haha) Musicians are known to lose some of their inspiration over time, I absolutely don’t blame them. Still, I felt like writing down my opinion (which has been bothering me) and maybe consider it as a piece of music review for the archives or whatever, and I’m looking forward to watch and observe what they come up next.

[la-luna-del-lupo]

Something Human

This is my first original Muse post. I am one of the fans who does like Dig Down, Thought Contagion, and Something Human. They are great songs, and they are better than anything in the radio. Sure, they're very different from OoS or T2L but every great band, if you listen back on them have totally different eras with each album and that just shows how much fucking talent they have. Muse is a band that is always surprising us and always giving us something new. They could do any fucking genre and it would sound awesome.

Something Human is something that hasn't been done in a long time. This song is special because of its simplicity. It's more raw and intimate, which had to be frightening for Matt to do since he always keeps us at arms length. If you want OoS go listen to it. It was a different era and a different world for them. We can't have everything sounding like OoS or Drones, I mean come on. That would be so boring. Just because they've done so many big mind blowing things, that's all people excpect. And honestly, I think those people are very closed minded. Bands grow and change, and it's exciting to see and hear.

I'm excited to hear the rest of the album because it is so different than the ones before it. Change is good, and Matt is going to do whatever he wants no matter what any of you say, anyway. I think this song is beautiful, and one of the few where he lets us peek a little closer into his heart.

On another note, the video was fucking awesome. Werewolf Matt is great, and Chris was there being badass, Dom was doing more as a hot cop.

All of you haters are stuck on repeat and expect a sound that's already been done. This is Muse. It's always going to be different. Embrace the fucking art of it, or go listen to something else.

[sunburnacoustic]

‘Survival’ makes a lot more sense in the context of The 2nd Law, an album which encompasses the global economic crisis, peak oil theory, food security, evolution, the taxation proposals of 19th-century economist Henry George and the concept of the "stress nexus". "It's talking about the second law of thermodynamics and how, as a limited ecosystem, we are on the verge of needing an energy revolution in order to sustain the way that we're living," says Bellamy. "This inner strength we have, this desire to evolve and expand and explore, I do love that about humanity. At the same time it's scary what it does on a global scale. I'm very much caught between the two."

Bellamy is self-aware enough to have considered the quandary of criticising overconsumption while traversing the globe in a gas-guzzling stadium rock band. "Exactly! We're all a function of the world. I think for every finger you point out there should be three pointing back at you."

Matt Bellamy on The 2nd Law, ‘We like pushing it as far as we can’, Guardian interview, 2012

[citiznerased]

aw man, i really feel you there - being an optimist i still have some hope for the new album (and ngl tc did fuel it quite a bit) but idek anymore. to be honest, a fair chunk of the post-resistance material has been a little shaky for me - drones stabilized it but now i'm almost dreading new stuff. [sorry about the mini-rant, but it's just that this band has got me through a lot over the years and now i'm not liking this muddled feeling i'm feeling.]

don't be sorry because I feel the exact same way. there was a period of time when Muse were my only anchor and have gotten me through so much shit, and I still feel for them, but ever since T2L I've been basically convincing myself with all my might that the direction Matt took is something I can totally get on board with. but there's quite a difference between finding something agreeable and feeling like something has gripped your soul and turned it inside out. it has become tiring to be 'that' kind of 'hardcore muser' as well, so I have adopted the 'no expectations - no disappointment' philosophy for good, basically :/aaand now I'm the one who's ranting, sorry ^^"

[uno-whatimean]

T2L is a perfect album. I love all their albums so much and for different reasons. T2L holds a special place in my heart though as I get the most enjoyment from listening to it. Bloody brilliant album. Cant believe it was a grower

[baenningtons]

|x|

[churchofsatannews]

The 2nd Law Releases "Little Monsters," its 3rd Full-Length Album 

Now available to download and stream! The 2nd Law has released “Little Monsters,” it’s 3rd full-length album.The primary musical project of Rev. M. A. Mandrake, T2L presents 23 mostly unreleased songs spanning a bizarre range of genre-bending evocations. Each song is its own world, and you never know what’s next. From teenage recordings to more recent tracks, this collection is an Industrial synthesis of Synthwave, Metal, EBM, IDM, and more. Join T2L for over an hour of nostalgia, evolution, and madness.

YouTube / Spotify / Google Play / Amazon / iTunes (Coming soon!)

And many more! (Check your favorite service.)

[endless-execution-commentary]

I’ve created a personification of the album Absolution by Muse just like I did with The 2nd Law

She has a bit of a darker personality, like the album, which is less upbeat than t2l. For the outfit there are references to the gas mask on the cover and Bellamy’s white coat from 2004.

I hope you like it

(I’m just doing them for fun, my texts always seem like I’m super serious about transforming Muse albums into girls haha)