Before Muse’s latest album dropped, front man Matthew Bellamy announced it as a “Christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, with some ambient rebellious dubstep and face melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia.” That may sound like a bunch of attention-starved gobbledegook, but the album The 2nd Law lives up to this bizarre description. Managing to sound both like an iconic Muse album and an amalgamation of only the most diverse musical styles, 2nd Law descends into chaos while miraculously preventing the absurd mixture of influences from becoming repulsive.
“Supremacy” begins the LP with heavily distorted guitar riffs and a staccato string ensemble. The heavy instrumentation unexpectedly cuts out to a marching snare beat accompanied by a legato violin melody and Bellamy’s soft vocals, which build to a howl as he takes 10 seconds to sing the word, “supremacy.” The result is a powerful, familiar Muse track.
“Madness” follows with a style more representative of 2nd Law. The vocals are backed only by a whomping dubstep beat before switching to a guitar solo and a choir that in any other situation would seem to have wandered into the wrong studio. Tonal transitions surprisingly manage to seamlessly blend one section of the song into the other, providing a whole, aesthetically pleasing work. Similarly, “Follow Me” begins with vocals surrounded only by barely audible electronic rhythms that gradually transition into full-throttle dubstep rivaling Skrillex.
The melting pot of genres occasionally produces tracks bordering on perfection. “Panic Station,” for instance, begins with a scaled-down “Another One Bites the Dust” bass intro and Queen-esque vocals that transition into upbeat electric guitar riffs. As a brass section comes in over the slowly evolving guitar melody, the listener is encouraged to dust off those ‘80s dance moves before rocking out to a distorted solo that surges into an attempted disco revival.
The album ultimately builds to a set of two entirely dubstep tracks: “The 2nd Law: Unsustainable” and “The 2nd Law: Isolated System.” Both feature an attractive instrumental passage combined with a deep synthesized backdrop and remixed quotations from the second law of thermodynamics. However, the absence of Bellamy is all too obvious; the two songs contribute nothing.
Even with the faux pas of the album closers, The 2nd Law remains simply and unpredictably exciting. By expertly cramming centuries of musical evolution into 53 minutes, Muse proves that no amount of fame can throw the band’s continually evolving sound into stagnation.
Voice’s Choices: “Panic Station,” “Explorers”
