Muse’s Will of the People is Vague, Jumbled, and Unimaginative: Review

Paolo Ragusa
·9 min read
1

The post Muse’s Will of the People is Vague, Jumbled, and Unimaginative: Review appeared first on Consequence.

At the end of Muse‘s third studio album, 2003’s Absolution, is a powerful ballad that, to this day, is one of the band’s best ever creations: “Ruled By Secrecy.” The song, rooted in Matt Bellamy‘s dueling arpeggiated pianos, is a patient exploration of an individual’s lack power against an unknown societal force, a stirring call to those who “are working so hard/ but [they’re] never in charge,” and a nod of suspicion towards society’s manipulative leaders.

“Ruled By Secrecy,” along with the other dramatic, apocalyptic themes of Absolution, marked a new thematic highway for the British trio, and it’s one that they’ve followed staunchly since the album’s release in 2003. Black Holes and Revelations came next with a greater emphasis on sci-fi, but still found the band using a sound of epic proportions to empower individuals against that same unknown societal force, as lead single “Knights of Cydonia” goes: “You and I must fight for our rights/ You and I must fight to survive.”

And in 2009, their fifth — and arguably most successful — album, The Resistance, doubled down even harder on the dystopian political commentary. Its two biggest singles were, in the most general sense, all about fighting oppressive leaders who seek to manipulate and control their subjects, and how revolution is necessary to bring love and life back to our world. Also, it was kind of just about the book 1984.

Now, 13 years and three similarly dramatic, politically-fueled albums later, Muse have returned with yet another dramatic, politically-fueled record: Will of the People. This album sounds exactly what you think a Muse album called Will of the People in 2022 would sound like, except, perhaps, its occasional foray into the muscular stylings of metalcore and hard rock.

Muse have always dug into the expansive possibilities of progressive rock and metal while remaining true to their most pop-forward impulses, and Will of the People certainly shows Muse take their sound to the furthest extent of both the metal and pop genres.

But Will of the People is different, because the times we live in are much different than they were when Muse helmed “Ruled By Secrecy” and The Resistance. That vague investigation of unequal power between a government and its citizens has come to a head in our current society, a pandemic has triggered a global health crisis, and a select few of the richest people in the world are, frankly, the only ones in control of what happens next.

These are all ideas that Muse have attempted to tackle in their previous eight studio albums, but now, Bellamy wants you to know that it’s getting real. To quote Will of the People‘s absurd final track, Bellamy and the band have proclaimed that “We Are Fucking Fucked.”

The fact that our global political crisis has given Muse’s audience more context for a dystopian record means that the band needs to be very careful about how it addresses these woes, the way it poses solutions, the specific problems that Bellamy is choosing to investigate. And unfortunately, Will of the People is — perhaps on purpose — not very careful about such things.

Take, for instance, the album’s second single, “Compliance,” which arrived with an ambiguous and bloated statement about how “authoritarian rules and reassuring untruths” are used by societal establishments to keep us from using “our own internal voice of reason and compassion.” Bellamy, assuming the role of the world’s governments, leaders, or other establishments, sings about how the ending of pain is near and the “dirty work” of “toy soldiers” (AKA regular citizens) is necessary to be saved — they just need “your compliance.”

And to complicate the message even further, the song is paired with a music video that depicts people wearing masks and taking big, symbolic pills, making the question “is this about vaccine mandates?” all too apparent.

On any other Muse album, “Compliance” would probably work — the song’s bright, ’80s-esque style is at odds with its sinister and manipulative lyrics, creating a fascinating tension that’s disguised in a seductive hue. But unlike The Resistance or even the anti-war lyrics of 2015’s Drones, it’s impossible to divorce the song from its political context and consequences. This is no longer music that can be “vaguely political” as an aesthetic choice, and Muse complicates this idea by not offering a clear point of view other than “we, the people, are being taken advantage of.” By whom, exactly? Well, that’s for Muse to know and for you to figure out.

More confusing, open-ended choices on Will of the People ensue. The title track, which serves as the album’s opener, is what happens when you take Muse’s biggest song, “Uprising,” and combine it with Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” — the fact that the band leans into evoking a song by Manson, who has been accused of sexual assault and abuse by multiple women, is a puzzling choice.

Later on in Will of the People comes the fraught synth rock ballad “Verona,” where the band specifically addresses the pandemic: “Can we kiss/ with poison on our lips?” asks Bellamy in the song’s opening lines, before requesting “take off your clothes/ and take off your mask.” Once again, we’re left with an ambiguous gesture — it’s up to the listener to decide whether this love song called “Verona,” which is very likely a reference to Romeo and Juliet‘s tense setting, is simply meant to be a sweet ode to loving someone “in sickness or in health.”

Or, it could be an allegory of loving someone across political or societal lines, like the Capulets and Montagues, posturing that maybe it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t believe in vaccines or wearing masks, because loving each other is more important. Either way, Bellamy knows that this statement does not exist in a vacuum, and rather than attempt to depict our universal need for connection in a more nuanced way, “Verona” feels like the band is presenting this very real conflict with a shrug.

According to Bellamy, Will of the People was crafted with their label’s request for a greatest hits compilation in mind. “It’s a montage of the best of Muse,” Bellamy told The Big Issue, “It’s a new take on all of those types of genres that we’ve touched on in the past.” There’s certainly some truth to this statement throughout Will of the People — other than the heavier tracks like “Won’t Stand Down” and “Kill Or Be Killed,” the album contains strong notes of every Muse album before it.

“Ghosts (How Can I Move On)” features an intro that recalls Absolution‘s “Butterflies & Hurricanes,” “Will of the People” feels lifted from both The Resistance and Drones, and the outro of closer “We Are Fucking Fucked” sounds like “Knights of Cydonia” but on three times as much cocaine.

But on Will of the People, Muse truly do away with any semblance of sonic cohesion. The peak of this comes with the album’s worst track, “You Make It Feel Like It’s Halloween,” which fashions a toxic relationship as an ’80s horror film. Though the cinematic, John Carpenter-esque flair evokes the nostalgic bombast of their previous LP Simulation Theory, the song feels shockingly out of place in a collection of songs that feel, well, shockingly out of place with each other.

There’s an argument to be made of “You Make It Feel Like It’s Halloween” existing as an example of Muse not taking themselves so seriously, which might be nice, for once — but on an album that attempts to be an urgent representation of our trying times, “You Make It Feel Like It’s Halloween” is an awkward detour, and it would be better utilized as a Halloween-specific one-off single in between album cycles.

Where Muse do succeed on Will of the People, however, is actually in their embracing of metal’s grittier stylings. “Kill Or Be Killed” is a genuinely exciting metalcore track, complete with some muffled death growls, a showman-esque guitar solo from Bellamy, and a phenomenal drum performance from Dominic Howard — who continues to be one of rock’s most intriguing drummers.”

Kill Or Be Killed” shows what would happen if the band embraced this harder style for an entire LP; if anything, it would provide an outlet for the band to display their incredibly impressive musicianship while letting its jumbled political commentary take the backseat. But furthermore, it would demonstrate a band that isn’t taking itself so seriously, because they don’t have to.

This is the key to understanding Muse in 2022 and to why Will of the People doesn’t totally work. Whether or not people specifically look to Muse for ideological validation is strangely relevant now, considering the ambiguity of the messages in “Compliance” and “Verona,” and though the band is clearly attempting to unite the people with this album, their lack of specificity is only going to divide the people further towards their own echo chambers.

Which then begs the question of why Muse are so insistent on turning the dials of The Resistance and their other politically-fueled albums when the real world stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s good that the band feels a responsibility to communicate strong messages of hope and unity to their base of fans and beyond, but it’s naive for them to think that Will of the People’s pseudo-provocative stance is good enough.

It may have been a rewarding stylistic choice back in 2003 or in the Obama Era, but now, it’s clear that Muse’s value is not in their political themes, but in the fact that these three dudes can play music with incredible skill and enthusiasm. Once they realize that the world does not need five different versions of “Uprising” across five albums, then maybe they’ll have a little more luck uniting their audience.

Whilst at a festival earlier this year, a colleague remarked that “when you don’t think about it so much, Muse is really fun.” Hopefully, on their tenth studio album, Muse begin to see this as well.

Note: You can catch Muse on tour throughout 2022 and 2023. Buy tickets here.

Essential Tracks: “Kill Or Be Killed,” “Euphoria,” “Won’t Stand Down”

Stream:

Will Of The People Album Artwork:

muse artwork will of the people new album compliance
muse artwork will of the people new album compliance

Muse’s Will of the People is Vague, Jumbled, and Unimaginative: Review
Paolo Ragusa

Popular Posts

Subscribe to Consequence’s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.