i had this great master plan of posting my current favorite track from the new muse album, “the resistance”, today to coincide with the release of the album. but then i found out that the album was actually released last week, leaving me embarrassed and humiliated. but then i remembered that nobody reads this so nobody will ever know. the good news is that im really feeling the british band’s fifth studio release, one that weve been waiting a few years to hear. im really really hoping this means that an american tour is in order because their live show is really something else. there are not many bands that can play a huge loud stadium anthem with an over the top visual show and then immediately follow it up with a classical piano solo.

“uprising” is the opening track of “the resistance” and it picks up exactly where their last album “black holes and revelations” off. well, unless you count “glorious” as being the last song of the album, then i guess it doesnt. but otherwise, the last album ended with the musethemic “knights of cydonia” (thats a word i just made up to describe the huge intense anthemic muse songs, of which there are many) with lead singer matt bellamy shrilly singing “no ones gonna take me alive/the time has come to make things right/you and i must fight for our lives/you and i must fight to survive”. this time, the band sings a few lines that are even more aggressive and triumphant sounding “they will not force us/they will stop degrading us/they will no control us/we will be victorious.” kind of makes you want to start a revolt while you sit at your 9-5 desk job reading this, doesnt it?

aside from the musethemic lyrics, this track has everything else that defines muse. the pounding beat of the bass, the minor melodies, which start out with a synth and the subtle sounds of a muted trumpet and remind you just a bit of halloween, though youre not quite sure why (the halloween thing is probably most evident in the track “time is running out” from their third album “absolution”), and of course those signature bellamy vocals and harmonies that sound just as good singing a slow ballad as they do singing a huge rocker like this. and dont worry when this song is over, because the rest of the album holds up to it too. and just for the record, anyone who ever tries to compare muse to radiohead is an idiot.

muse – uprising

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