Muse: The 2nd Law

I was a big fan of Muse's early work. Their second album, Origin of Symmetry, is among my favorite albums. In their heyday, they were innovative and their considerable talent was plainly on display.

Which is why it's sad to see the path they've headed down since.

Even in their early days, Muse were always a bit bombastic and over-the top. As time has gone on, this has become more and more pronounced. It started with 2006's Black Holes and Revelations, where it was notable but not too bad, and seemed to come to a head with 2009's The Resistance, which closed with a 20-minute symphony about aliens (I think). As Muse's prominence grew, their sense of grandiosity and self-importance seemed to grow exponentially, and their albums became less unique and more bloated and preposterous.

Which brings me to The 2nd Law, their 2012 release. Anyone who hoped that frontman Matthew Bellamy got all his Queen-esque operas out of his system was disappointed to hear the first release from this album, "Survival." If The Resistance was over-the top, "Survival" is so over-the-top that it went back around to the bottom, then went over the top again. It's a Queen song that brings out all of that band's worst tendencies rather than their best.

Single "Madness" is much better, a pulsating song that slowly builds to a forceful climax. The subdued nature of that song is something the other songs could have learned from.

Bellamy also seems to have unfortunately developed an affinity for dubstep in the time before this album, as "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable" and other songs make clear. I regret that I cannot remain impartial about dubstep; I think it's a horrendous style and a very poor choice for Muse, whose fans are not the type likely to embrace dubstep.

However, the dubstep isn't the low point of the album; that would be its third song, "Panic Station." "Panic Station" features the people who played the horns on the Stevie Wonder classic "Superstition," and in this song, they play a horn part that's almost exactly the horn part on the Stevie Wonder classic "Superstition." This song is also the worst offender for Bellamy's bombastic tendencies; high-pitched shrieks of "waaaaaaa!" permeate the song, as do many unnecessary echo effects and pitch-shifting of vocals.

It's a shame that Muse have gone down this road. Origin of Symmetry and Absolution were tremendous and unique, but ever since those breakthrough albums they have been content to recreate the worst aspects of Queen, instead of the best aspects of themselves.

Grade: D+

Video: "Madness"