When I first heard the title of the fifth Muse album I must admit my heart sank a little. The band had threatend to over step the mark for a while, and after Black Hole and Revelations, I was worried that such a thing may just happen, especially when early snippets of ‘United States of Eurasia’ appeared on the internet.
I needn’t have worried. While the album in chocker-block with synths, heavy bass, pummeling percussion, swooping strings (along with the rest of the orchestra) and, of course, finger-licking riffs, the album doesn’t lose it’s credibility. This may have something to do with the sense of humour that runs through the record. ‘Uprising’ is often, and deservedly, compared to the Doctor Who theme and ‘United States of Eurasia’ made me laugh out loud as it reached the Bo-Rap style crescendo. It is a ridiculous album but it will make you love it before you lampoon it.
One of the most interesting things about the cd is that you can hear it the genesis of each song on a previous Muse album, and in this respect provides a nice summit for the natural progression of Muse’s sound. Honestly, I have no clue where they will go from here. The range of genres played with shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone after the confusion ‘SuperMassive Black Hole’ caused on it’s initial release, but each song definately belongs to the Devonshire three-piece.
The sheer quantity of sound poses an interesting problem for listeners. On my first hearing I realised my hi-fi was no where near powerful enough to do the songs justice. It even seems at times that Matt Bellany’s famed vocals don’t seem to live up the rest of the arragenment, although there are often moments of brilliance (MK Ultra, I Belong to You and The Resistance spring instantly to mind). The songs seemed to have been made for playing live and listening to them on a very compacted disc only makes me want to buy tickets for their Autumn tour.
The content of the lyrics will be well documented by now, and I think the subject matter has meant a shift in tone for Muse and, for me, my second quibble with this album. As is evident when you look back at ‘Black Holes and Revelations’, the records preoccupation with the politics over the human aspect left me cold. It is ironic that a band once criticised for being ‘overly hystrionic’ (thanks Kerrang!) is now being criticised for the exact opposite. It’s not that their not great songs but the lack of human emotion usually present in Muse’s tunes left me feeling dissconnected. I knew they were great songs but I didn’t feel it, at least not straight away.
If you dig you’ll find the love story that threads itself through the world of tyrrany, corruption and oppression that the band conjour up and this provides not only a lovely reward but a way into a body of work that might otherwise be too clinical. And provide a story for people who like to escape from time to time, like me 
As most people will be aware, Phoenix released a free live album a few days ago of their recent performance in Sydney. It features the majority of tracks from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.