Muse Suffering From Obesity

Every time the British rockers of Muse released a new album you didn't know what you were going to get. However you did know it was going to be bigger than the last album. Black Holes And Revelations was already balancing on the edge of credibility and I was hoping they would choose another direction and maybe even go to a more modest and intimate sound after that. Instead on The Resistance they blew it up to an even bigger and more bombastic sound. And that's when they lost me.

Muse - The 2nd Law (Ronald Says 5 out of 10)

And I won't cut around the bush. They continued on the journey of inflating their own sound and are now light years away from the point where it's still pleasant and interesting to listen to. The 2nd Law is so chuck full of musical directions, ideas and bombast, that it just has turned plain ugly. It's like a body builder so pumped up, filled with steroids that he turned into a cartoon version of a real man. When I listen to it, I get visions of the fat man in Monty Python's 'The Meaning Of Life': the album is trying to absorb so much that it explodes. Muse have created this monster that just keeps swallowing more than it can hold and they can't control it any more.

Just listen to the first two songs 'Supremacy' and 'Madness'. It's as if they were trying to put every band they admire into their songs. Queen? Check. Led Zeppelin? Check. U2? Check. Radiohead? Check. Not crazy enough for you? Let's throw some orchestral and classical parts to the mix. For the first time two Muse songs are without the vocals of Matt Bellamy. Bass player Chris Wolstenholme is getting the honours here. 'Save Me' definitely won't go down as one of their best songs ever. And you can hear him again on 'Liquid State', which is an average prog rock song that isn't actually that bad, but it feels completely out of place.

I'm not even going near the horrible dubstep experiments 'Follow Me' and 'The 2nd Law: Unsustainable'. Muse have created their own black hole which just sucks up everything that comes near. They have become their own troubled universe, a cartoon world where everything is blown out of proportions. In 'Animals'which is actually one of the few decent enough songs on the album, Bellamy is singing "Out of control/We’re out of control/Crush those who beg at your feet". I guess they are aware of it themselves by now as well.





Listen to 'The 2nd Law' on Spotify.



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Rock Werchter 2010 Day 1: Rough Start Glorious Ending

The worst part about a festival for me is getting there. Being stuck in traffic, loaded with all your luggage trying to find a spot to put up your tent. And no, I'm not a happy camper since I don't really like the camping bit. But of course all the music and good times make up for it plenty.

Rock Werchter Festival Werchter Belgium, Day 1 July 1 2010
Two of our friends found out that in the end they didn't get their tickets due to a failed payment and had to drop out. Then my sunglasses broke even before I got in the car (but usually they break anyway). When putting up our tent we broke a tent stick (eventually fixed it with our MacGyver skills). One of my friends realized he lost his camping wrist band somewhere when we just walked off the campsite ('No sorry sir, you're not allowed back on the camping ground without wrist band...'). Fortunately the girls found it again.

Finally when exchanging our drink ticket pre-sale vouchers they miscounted the tickets as I found out when I recounted them two meters from the booth ('No sorry sir we cannot give you the missing tickets since you walked away...'). But that was all well again too after going to the front desk for nothing and returning to the ticket office preparing for an argument that eventually didn't have to take place ('I think you were right after all sir...').

In the end beating the traffic by a somewhat illegal action, making it to the festival site before most of the 80.000 other people did, drinking our first beers, and being in time for the first band for the very first time in our Werchter history made up for it. Werchter 2010 was off!

Kyteman's Hiphop Orchestra (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
After playing every stage in The Netherlands Kyteman could now prove he's ready to take on the world. With his 22 person strong orchestra he treated us to a show full of soul, jazz, funk and hiphop like we're used of him. Maybe not a sold out Heineken Music Hall or Lowlands Alpha tent main stage performance but still very nice. What a way to start the day!

Skunk Anansie (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
Oh those Golden Years when I was in the prime of my youth and Skunk Anansie were one of the hardest rocking bands on stage. Well, they sure are back with a trip down memory lane playing their biggest hits. Although I like their up tempo songs best Skin proves she's still full of energy and can rock any main stage. I can't tell if they played any new songs but there is a new album on its way due in September.



Stereophonics (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
Being in a rough period because of the death of their former band mate drummer Stuart Cable maybe played a part in the weak performance of Stereophonics. Fact was that they routinely worked their way through their set list full of hits. Singer Kelly Jones obviously didn't have any fun at it today and never being much of a talker ignored the crowd completely. Too bad for a band with many festival friendly songs.

Muse (Ronald Says 9 out of 10)
Fortunately Muse were there to close the day. A band I have seen many times and never seen play a weak set. This time was no exception. Although sizing their stage set down a lot compared to their full concerts they still brought plenty of visual spectacle and played a concentrated mind blowing set. Although I still don't really like the songs of their last album the older songs made up for it. Whether you like them or not they know how to please a festival crowd.



We decided not to stick around for Faithless to see if he could top it off and went for a few more drinks to close off a nice first day with lots of sunshine. Time to hit the sack and prepare for the tropical second day.

See more pictures over here:
Rock Werchter 2010 Day 1 Pictures

Rock Werchter 2010 Day 2 Review >
Rock Werchter 2010 Day 3 Review >
Rock Werchter 2010 Day 4 Review >
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Muse Shooting For The Stars And Miss

Everything about Muse has grown big over the past years: their sound grew bigger, their shows grew bigger and their fanbase got bigger. So where would it end? They didn't stop at their last album but tried to make their latest one the biggest of all.

Muse - The Resistance (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
When I saw their last tour I was wondering where they would go next. Could they go even bigger as they hinted themselves? This seemed impossible. I thought it would be great if the next step would actually be back to basics again. But they shot for bigger instead.

The album opener "Uprising" isn't bad all. A typical Muse song with some doctor Who sounds. They have been digging into conspiracy theories a lot and this album is all about that and can be considered a concept album. This also reflects in the sometimes paranoia lyrics. Not really fancy lyrics but when you believe in those conspiracies you want to make sure the message gets across.

But then in song number two "Resistance" the band goes into hyperdrive and musical mode. The lyrics get more cheesy and the music sounds almost laughable at some points. It's all buffed up with strings and keys and they must really have thought that bigger is better. At ludicrous hyperspeed they fly into "United States of Eurasia" which has Queen written all over it. All subtlety is lost and they completely fly out of control with this Bohemian Rhapsody meets Cats.

And so it goes on this crazy space ship. "MK Ultra" is a more down to earth Muse tune and can please me more. Then the ship heads into a symphony "Exogenesis" in three parts. It's a both admirable and impressive part of the album and singer Matthew Bellamy shows once again that he's a gifted piano player and composer. Still it feels lightly out of place and too much. Like the whole album it's going in all directions and seems to be all over the place.

Muse was groing towards this all along and it seems the band feel they have finally climaxed. But it seems they have either climaxed prematurely or have overdone themselves. In this case bigger is not better and one can only hope that next time they do it right or may consider going small again.
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Muse Does a Queen and Pearl Jam Sounds Happy

New songs from Muse and Pearl Jam are out while we await their new albums. I was really excited to hear they are both releasing new albums and couldn't wait to give these song a listen. Click to listen to them. What do you think of these songs? Let me know and leave a comment.


Muse - United States of Eurasia
Yes, it sounds a lot like Queen but just not as good and honestly I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe it just needs to grow on me more.



Pearl Jam - The Fixer
Quite a happy song. Not sure what to think of it yet. It sounds it a bit too poppy to me.


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