You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween (song)

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Muse song
Name You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween[1]
Album/single
Length 3:00[2]
Alternative titles Halloween
First live performance 8th September 2022
Latest live performance
Recorded 2021
Writer/composer Matthew Bellamy
Producer Muse
Chart position


Description

Regarded as Muse's version of Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me, the song's title has been "officially" leaked on March 14th, 2022 via the JSON output from wontstanddown.muse.mu, which contains basic album info. The song was leaked together with the rest of the album on August 23rd. This is the first song since Megalomania to prominently feature a church organ.

NME described the song as a "spooktronic" song. Lyrically, it talks about victims of domestic abuse during lockdowns.[3] Speaking about this song in an interview for Premier Guitar, Matt said "I grew up on things like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, or Jimi Hendrix. Those are the two guitarists that I probably loved the most. And the element that they brought into guitar playing was, obviously amazing guitar playing, but also an element of chaos, an element of being slightly out of control. Sometimes When you edit it out, you end up losing a little bit of that chaos feeling. That’s something that we’ve been trying to balance a little bit. It’s difficult because it’s so tempting to try to tighten everything. There was a bit of that on certain tracks. Something like ‘You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,’ for example, is much more on the tighter side.".

In the Classic Rock Magazine, Mark Beaumont descibred You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween as a "church organ-led tech-rocker", while Alt Note Magazine labeled the song as being electro-experimental.[4]. Riff Magazine had this to say about the song; "The jumpy electro-rock number feels more in line with the band’s later work—booming percussion, synths, riffs and a blistering guitar solo. With an ’80s pop aesthetic and a modern alt-rock foundation, the track is fun, unusual and stands out from the rest of the album."[5] According to fans, the song is giving a strong resemblance and is paying tribute to Muse's classics such such as Map of the Problematique, Big Freeze, Supermassive Black Hole and Megalomania, while also having a heavy 80s tinge to it, akin to the output from Simulation Theory.

On August 23rd, 2022, it was announced that the song would be released as a single, out on August 26th, together with the album itself.

Instrumentation

The song starts out with an iconic 80s big drum sound with gated reverb, a church organ, and a vocoded vocal, singing "Halloween, Halloween", which also appears during the choruses. A scream sound effect then leads into the song itself. You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween also includes a synth/guitar, similar in style and sound to the one used in Compliance. Alike Compliance, it appears during the chorus. The verses are, in terms of instruments, kept simple, with just a synth bass playing over the drum beat, together ith vocals. The song also features a guitar solo, inspired by that of Van Halen, from Michael Jackson's song Beat It. Despite the song being an 80s-inspired track, it features live drums. During the final chorus, Chris also brings in some bass slap fills. The outro features the famous ascending scale from the intro of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", played by both Matt on the organ and Chris on the bass, with Dom following up with a closing drum fill.

Apart from screams, mentioned above, the song includes other sound effects and quotes from horror movies like "Misery" and "The Shining", with Bellamy taking stylistic inspiration from Stephen King for the song itself. The sound effects were recorded by two actors, as the band weren't allowed to use direct samples from the movies.[6]

According to producer Aleks Von Korff, the reverbs used on the drums for this song were the EMT250 and the SPX90. Plug-in wise, Baby Audio's Super VHS and Universal Audio's Capitol Chambers were also used. 10+ different combinations of drums were tested out prior to settling on what's heard on the final product.[7]

Music Video

Like the song itself, the music video also includes several references to classic horror movies, e.g. "IT" and "The Shining".

On August 8th, 2023, the song's music video was nominated for MTV VMA's Best Rock. Votes can be cast every day until September 1st, via this link (login required).

More here.

Live

The song's debut performance was at the first gig after the release of the album. It features more prominent guitar playing.

More here.

Trivia

  • This track features a rendering error at the end of each chorus; A short 415hz tone reference is audible most at 1:00 and again at 1:41, but much quieter. This could be a Baroque Pitch Tuning Reference, as the song is often played live with the Toccata and Fugue in D minor intro; or a simple EQ issue

Lyrics

You got me checking my mirror

You make me feel like I'm on the run Where'd you hide the gun? The kitchen knife in your hand Are you the poison, are you the cure? I'm not so sure

I'm shackled, there is no way out I can't escape

When you turn out the lights You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween When you skulk 'round the house You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween

You cut me off from my friends You cut me off from my family I'm in misery (I'm your number one fan) Each day I fall to my knees I see the writing is on the wall Now I'm in withdrawal

I'm shackled, there is no way out (There's is nothing I can do to escape) I can't escape

When you turn out the lights You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween The way you skulk 'round the house You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween

Ahhh

When you turn out the lights You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween When you skulk 'round the house You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween

I see your eye in the keyhole I feel like it's Halloween It's Halloween Won't rest until I'm possessed You make me feel like it's Halloween, it's Halloween

(But you are the caretaker)

References

  1. ↑ https://wontstanddown.muse.mu/api/v1/catalogue/new/
  2. ↑ https://www.qobuz.com/nl-nl/album/will-of-the-people-muse/k02hnfrjhdxrc
  3. ↑ https://www.nme.com/big-reads/muse-cover-interview-2022-will-of-the-people-3243209
  4. ↑ https://www.altnotemag.com/reviews/muse-will-of-the-people-album-review/
  5. ↑ https://riffmagazine.com/album-reviews/muse-will-of-the-people/
  6. ↑ https://variety.com/2022/music/news/muse-matt-bellamy-interview-will-of-the-people-tour-1235352254/
  7. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/ChsyfrEPC-w/
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