‘…Muse are now two-for-two for a return to form; ‘Be With You’ is the sound of these musicians staring their ageing selves in the mirror and refusing to see weakness…’
To be a Muse fan is no easy task. The Teignmouth legends are now thirty two years deep into their career, and have released records that amazed and appalled listeners; ‘Origin Of Symmetry‘ is no doubt the reason many a nerdy teenager picked up the guitar, whilst their last effort, ‘Will Of The People‘, was a confusing mess of a record that sought to combine aspects of a “greatest hits” album with new material. Last year, however, the band released ‘Unravelling‘, and showed a strong return to form; Matt Bellamy whipped out his eight stringer and levelled buildings with djent riffs, contrasted by moody and melancholic verses.
The band have now finally announced their tenth record, ‘The Wow! Signal‘, and with this they have unleashed upon the world a brand new single. Fans seeking another ‘Hysteria’ or ‘Citizen Erased’ will be solidly disappointed; this is firmly a modern Muse track, packed with bright synths and polished pop hooks, and the heavy riffing from the band’s previous single is wholly absent. However despite understandable trepidation, combined with last year’s ‘Unravelling’, Muse are now two-for-two for a return to form; ‘Be With You’ is the sound of these musicians staring their ageing selves in the mirror and refusing to see weakness, and the result is shiver-inducing.
A sprawling organ introduction gives way to subdued dance beats, glittering with a nostalgic optimism. Crescendoing guitar melodies rise up from the track’s starry depths, and with them come an entourage of stadium-sized drums and waves of unrelenting bass; the solo in the back half is delivered with a glittering brilliance, hearkening back to material one might have expected on ‘Black Holes and Revelations‘. Bellamy himself sounds weathered but wondrous, his maturing voice carrying the richness of a thousand lifetimes as he delivers gospel-inspired melodies.
‘Will Of The People’ was the sound of Muse throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck; the resulting mess offered only genuine concern that Muse had finally, truly, lost their spark. ‘Be With You’ sounds like a band that have pawed over the bones of their previous mistake, and found what made them special in the first place. Declaring that Muse are “so back” is premature, but is a sentiment that shall be kept in mind.
For Fans Of: Sleep Token, Coldplay, Enter Shikari, The Killers
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