Album Review: The 2nd Law (Muse)My Rating: 4/5
Muse strikes again with their sixth studio album, and the band's music style is as diverse as ever. While the outstanding, effect-laden guitar and bass remain intact in "Supremacy" and "Panic Station", we also see integral use of back-up choir singers in "Survival" and "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" as well as the use of club beats and dubstep in "Madness", "Follow Me", and "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable". Needless to say, the addition of classic instruments, music concrete, and Bellamy's Queen-style vocals to the mix make this album the most theatrical and cross-genre Muse work to date.
What I've always admired about Muse is their ability to generate an entire album around a single concept and nail it down with both lyrics and instrumentation. The 2nd Law is no exception. The "second law" refers to the thermodynamic concept that all systems tend towards chaos. The album touches on two general types of chaos: chaos by expansionist capitalism and chaos in love. "Animals" examines (by masterfully using music concrete from the NYSE) the tendency for humans in a capitalist system to inherently create chaos while "Explores" laments the loss of nature to this expansionist tendancy with "A world lush in bloom/ with rivers running wild/ they'll be rerouted South / with none left for you and me". Finally, "Unsustainable" nails down the theme with a robotic woman stating, "a species set on endless growth is unsustainable". They might be preaching, but the're preaching to the choir.
On the more emotional side of things, "Madness", "Follow Me", and "Big Freeze" walk us through the chaotic nature of human relationships, how love is the only force able to subdue the entropy, and the tendency for love to slowly slip out of our grasp as the chaos builds. Above and beyond the lyrics, the entire album is done with an epic, yet overwhelmingly chaotic, plethora of instruments and effects. In this way, Muse caters to the trend towards dance music, advances its unique style, and hammers home a timeless message of the human condition.
Final Rating: 4/5
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