Supermassive Black Hole in your wallet: Muse release NFT album

[PlanktonSideburns]

Being so thick that you accidentally invent the Liberal Democrat Party

[idunnosomename]

Love how the interview is with Dorian Lynskey of all people. Judging by the sarcastic "Will Of The People" title and the last track "we are fucking fucked" fellow bald Remaniac Ian Dunt is writing the lyrics

Utter desolation. I'm angry yet fascinated now

[Kankurette]

Oh Matt, you utter nerd.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

NEW Muse album #fbpe #remainiacs #shite

[popcorn]

That Guardian article led me to a few other things, including this from 2009, which I found interesting: Glenn Beck writes open letter to Muse

Glenn Beck has responded to an interview with Muse in the Observer, in which Matt Bellamy criticised rightwing America, by writing an open letter to the singer.

In the interview, published on Sunday, Bellamy discussed the way in which the talk-radio host embraced their 2009 album The Resistance and the use of their hit single Uprising in rightwing conspiracy videos on YouTube.

"In the US the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward rightwing libertarianism," Bellamy told Dorian Lynskey. Defining himself as "a left-leaning libertarian – more in the realm of Noam Chomsky", he added: "Uprising was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies and we turned them down on a regular basis."

Conservative pundit Beck has long been a fan of the band from Devon, even though they once called him "a crazy rightwinger".

The former Fox News presenter has now written to Bellamy – calling him Matthew – to say: "As uncomfortable as it might be for you, I will still play your songs loudly.

"To me your songs are anthems that beg for choruses of unity and pose the fundamental question facing the world today – can man rule himself?" he continued.

Muse's early lyrics were quite a different kettle of fish, and made no pretence of being political at all. On Origin of Symmetry, the singing is so hysterical, the vowels so elongated, that the lyrics evade scrutiny entirely. You had to read the liner notes to discover Bellamy was singing things like "my plug-in baby crucifies my enemies" and "all the holes in our souls host no thrills" and "H-8 is the one for me", and it wasn't like you understood anything better once you knew that.

The lyrics were vaguely gothic, vaguely visceral. There's something gasping and strained and sinewy about them, and I don't just mean the singing (or the much-maligned gasping and breathing, which honestly has never bothered me). It's not like these lyrics ever moved me exactly, but that's OK - I think they're appropriately surreal, and definitely not cheesy.

I find this another interesting thing from that recent Guardian interview:

"I was way more shoe-gazey and standoffish," he says. "No physical movements, no eye contact." After a few years, he realised that the more theatrical he was, the more people liked it. And the bigger the shows got, the grander their music became.

I think at some point Bellamy realised that singing stuff about "them controlling us" etc simply worked from a theatrical perspective. It was an easy idea to build a rock concert around, to get animated about. And Muse's music suits a triumphant, declamatory kind of feeling, so I suppose from that angle it "works".

But the problem is that it's completely brainless - to the point that I think it's slightly dangerous.

I once saw a YouTube comment on a Muse video that said something like: "He says 'they will not control us' but I do not know who he is talking about." And really, that's right on the money. The album is called The Resistance but what the fuck, exactly, is it resisting?

Bellamy references 1984 in at least two songs I know of - United States of Eurasia, and The Resistance (in the lines "Kill your prayers for love and peace / You'll wake the thought police"). I assume he's actually read the book, but I wonder if he took it as anything other than an exciting science fiction story.

In 1984, the Party create deliberately ill-defined figures of hate to control the population. There's a perpetual war supposedly going on between Oceania and either Eurasia or Eastasia. The enemy keeps switching between Eurasia and Eastasia, and every time it changes, the government denies that it was ever any different. The other object of hate is Emmanuel Goldstein, the leader of the revolutionary faction the Brotherhood. The Party say he's in cahoots with Eurasia or Eastasia, whoever they're supposedly at war with at the time. But it's not clear that Goldstein even exists, or if he's just an invention of the party used to control the population.

That's basically what Muse do in their lyrics. They get people all hot under the collar about "them controlling us" but never get specific about who the fuck they're talking about. The effect is to unite audiences in a single cause, to get their blood up. It's a thrilling manipulation rather than an actual call for change.

Look at this Muse performance:

The flags, the sirens, the uniforms, the red and black. It looks like a Nazi rally! This is thousands of excited people jumping up and down singing "They will not control us! We will be victorious!" and they have no idea who they're imagining they will be victorious over. It's all really a gigantic exercise in crowd control - literally. That's what's going on in the concert here. It's a two-minute hate, directed at no one at all, because it's fun.

In this video, the band members are all wearing red and black jackets and multiplied on the giant screens, creating the impression of a sort of marching Muse army. But the red-and-black uniforms - and the militaristic uniformity of the imagery - suggests that Muse themselves are the oppressive fascist forces. Has this occurred to them?

The other thing is that this was all done before by Pink Floyd, on the Wall tour, in the 80s. Roger Waters explicitly recast the rock star as the fascist and the audience his assembled rally, and confronts the audience with lyrics like:

So ya thought ya might like to go to the show
To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow
I've got some bad news for you sunshine
Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel
And they sent us along as a surrogate band
We're gonna find out where you fans really stand
[Verse 2]
Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall
(Against the wall)
Now there's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me
Get him up against the wall
(Against the—)
And that one looks Jewish and that one's a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint and another with spots
If I had my way, I'd have all of them shot!

You might not want to call that sophisticated but it makes sense. It's a totally coherent idea, an effective use of the rock band staging to make a political statement.

The Guardian article says:

Occasionally, Muse records such as The Resistance (think Nineteen Eighty-Four, directed by James Cameron) have been drastically misread.

I don't think Muse's records are "misread", because there's nothing to read. None of those songs were ever statements. They're just big dumb guitar riffs dressed up in the language of violence and uprising and conspiracy and liberation like it's another kind of guitar pedal.

You can project whatever phantom menace you like into those lyrics, so - coupled with Bellamy's penchant for conspiracy theories - in retrospect it's not surprising that the nutjobs embraced it all. It's like Bellamy co-opted revolutionary language and then that got co-opted by Glenn Beck.

To his credit, Bellamy does say in that same recent interview that he's ditched the conspiracy theory bullshit:

His political education was self-directed and he is humble about his missteps. "I'm not an intellectually trained thinker," he says. "I made the usual mistakes that people from my background make, which is conspiracy theories and all that kind of stuff." At one point, he became prone to talking about UFOs, David Icke and how 9/11 was an inside job.

In the late 2000s, however, Bellamy began to think more seriously about how the world works. "I've clawed my way out of my own ignorance and tried to understand as best I can what's going on," he says. "I started to get away from, let's say, quackery." In an age of QAnon, Stop the Steal and Covid denial, conspiracy theories no longer seem harmlessly entertaining. The pandemic exposed and intensified the outlandish paranoia of artists from Ian Brown to Van Morrison. As a reformed conspiracy theorist, can Bellamy explain the allure?

"Yeah," he says, leaning in. "First of all, it's distraction from the really pressing issues. It makes people feel engaged with topics that really are going nowhere. In terms of human psychology, there's a comfort that maybe human beings somewhere, even if they're evil, are in control, when in fact the truth is far more frightening – there are no humans in control and it's all a bunch of chaos."

But then we have this in the same interview:

Today, Bellamy looks a bit glum when I suggest that cranks will seize on his reference, in Ghosts (How Can I Move On), to the Great Reset, a World Economic Forum initiative that has inspired conspiracy theories about a one-world government.

FFS. Don't just sit there looking glum. Write something else.

[Goldentony]

did Frankie Valli ever do or say anything like this or did he just stick with belters like The Night

[PlanktonSideburns]

did Frankie Valli ever do or say anything like this or did he just stick with belters like The Night

I put the fuckin ValliCoin in 2020 and it's EATING SHIT worse than doge now

[Kankurette]

That picture of Roger Waters reminds me of that bit in the Dangan Ronpa anime where

Spoiler alert

they show the members of Ultimate Despair and Ibuki is performing at a rock concert full of people in Monokuma masks.

[close]

[hamfist]

Listened to the new album out of curiosity on a long drive today. Concluded that I briefly opened the cell door I had locked Muse behind a long time ago, and as I opened it I heard them still making the same dumb faux hystrionic noise. So I have closed it again.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

We Are Fucking Fucked is an incredible song title. Fuck actually listening to it though.

[purlieu]

The lyrics were vaguely gothic, vaguely visceral. There's something gasping and strained and sinewy about them, and I don't just mean the singing (or the much-maligned gasping and breathing, which honestly has never bothered me). It's not like these lyrics ever moved me exactly, but that's OK - I think they're appropriately surreal, and definitely not cheesy.

Yeah, I think this probably ties in with my assessment that they're great when they're being a glammy pop band, and as soon as they start taking themselves seriously it all falls apart.

[popcorn]

We Are Fucking Fucked is an incredible song title. Fuck actually listening to it though.

It features Matt Bellamy singing "oi! fuck off!" like a shit lairy British version of Killing in the Name

[PlanktonSideburns]

Can't get over the fact the he looks like someone shaved Dot Cotton

[Ferris]

We Are Fucking Fucked is an incredible song title. Fuck actually listening to it though.

It features Matt Bellamy singing "oi! fuck off!" like a shit lairy British version of Killing in the Name

Tempted to check if this a wind up or not, but that would involve listening to Muse so I'm willing to leave it as a mystery.

[Kankurette]

Maybe they should replace Feist on the Arcade Fire tour. They're equally up their own holes.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Turned off watch history on YouTube before watching that. Didn't make it to the oi/crass/chas n Dave section though

Who needs an album about how fucked things are right now?

Also, didn't muse songs use to start with neoclassical arpeggios? Did matey boy lose his guitar midi lead or something? Verses were the fullest of chugs

[popcorn]

Tempted to check if this a wind up or not, but that would involve listening to Muse so I'm willing to leave it as a mystery.

100% true

[Ferris]

100% true

Yeah but again; you could tell me that Bellamy chants the intro to A History of Western Philosophy during [song/album] and I'd have to demur on the basis that I refuse to subject myself to his oeuvre and verify.