Singles

Muse - Knights of Cydonia

Mark L 25/11/2006

Rating: 1/5

Oh dear. Don't say I didn't warn you. If Muse continue up this avenue I predict they are going to be one of those bands that some people were embarrassed to have ever liked. Like Yes or Emerson Lake and Palmer before them.

Knights of Cydonia already has the terrible prog title, then takes what were already a pretty detached sounding band, and infuses them with a heightened level of cold bombast. The song rumbles on, with nothing much interesting to say, except the big drums and whiz bang studio effects. It doesn't really connect with me and simply conveys a sense of total aimless pomp. Muse are Pink Floyd without the humanity.

All you Muse fans are going to come back with the staple 'yeah but they are awesome live, Matt is a guitar genius'. I don't doubt these observations. I also don't deny that they have written some great songs over the years. I know that there are better songs on the album to have released than this for starters. But, regardless, I have always found them to be a visceral firework display of a band that generally leaves me feeling empty and cold. Matt Bellamy doesn't strike me as genuine, or someone with anything interesting to say (Plug In Baby was about his guitar for chrissakes!), and here it is never more apparent, amongst an icy, mechanical, splurge of a song.

I hear this on the radio, then I put on my Joy Division live in Preston CD, and realise what true emotional raw music is. What a contrast.

So now you arn't going to be buying this load of tosh go check out Bill Cummings' review of the New Puritans, and investigate some great new passionate underground talent, instead of a bunch of Queen wannabes playing with their expensive studio toys.