FHM The Music Issue 2009-10 – Muse: The Resistance
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Issue 238 of FHM.
Muse: The Resistance
Album number five and Muse have lost the plot in the best possible way
From playing gigs in West Country outhouses, to selling out Wembley- twice- Muse have become one of the biggest bands in the world, by recording some of the biggest albums in the world.
Pompous, over-blown, self-indulgent and a lot of fun, Muse are what your dad might call prog-rock. We just call them brilliant, usually while sliding down the office on our knees using the woman who works in HR's hockey stick like a guitar. We ask Muse bass monster Chris Wolstenholme to talk us through the epic new album, The Resistance (out September 14).
Uprising
"The title of the album relates strongly to the first two tracks. Uprising has the protest thing going on. I think that the whole song is about having a massive mistrust for people in power, whether it be government, or bankers. We're living in a society where we're being told to keep quiet, to just accept things as they are."
FHM says; Sounds like Blondie jack-knifing an articulated lorry filled with Michel Jarre's keyboards over a rainbow.
Resistance
"Matt [Bellamy, Muse singer] took a lot of influence from Nineteen Eighty-four. Resistance is more about love than Uprising. Love is one of the last freedoms we have left, so it's about using love and sex as an act of political freedom."
FHM says; Sounds like John Williams doing the soundtrack to Robocop's funeral.
Undisclosed Desires
"When we started working on this song all we had was a chord structure. We tried playing it as a band and it wasn't working. So we made a decision to put down the instruments, I think the only real instrument on that song is the bass. We used a lot of drum machines and synths, we really wanted to push the electronic thing because there's always a temptation to pick up guitars, that's our comfort zone.
FHM says;
Sounds as if Justine Timberlake has joined Depeche Mode, then his cock falls off.
United States Of Eurasia (Collateral Damage)
"You've got this huge landmass, going from the UK all the way to Japan and there's so many mini powers. What would it be like if the whole thing became one big superpower. Musically, Queen has been a big influence. There's an over-the-topness about Queen which we admire."
FHM says;
Sounds like if Queen recorded the Flash soundtrack after a long train journey with nothing to read but The Economist.
Guiding Light
"Playing Wembley influenced us to write this. One of the few songs we thought would work in that environment. The way the drums start, they've got a We Will Rock You vibe. We even wanted the way we play our instruments to be a bit more "stadium". We wanted it to be deliberately cheesy in places."
FHM says;
Sounds like the gods on Mount Olympus playing Guitar Hero with Steve Vai.
Unnatural Selection
"This is the most "rock" track on the album. It was influenced in places by Queens Of The Stone Age, again it was a nod towards the '70's."
FHM says;
Sounds like the end of the world, as recounted by your mate's cool granddad with the glass eye.
MK Ultra
"This was about brainwashing. MK Ultra was a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation programme. This one links a little back to the last album because that dealt with a lot of conspiracy theories. It's a song about losing control of your own destiny. Because you're not in control of your own mind."
FHM says; Sounds like an episode of The X-Files starring Iron Maiden.
I Belong To You (Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix)
"The influences for this song were quite weird, the French part is from the opera Samson and Delilah. When we started working on it Matt was playing the piano, we thought it was pretty out there. We really wanted to push the sound. It's got a clarinet solo and everything."
FHM says;
Sounds like the records Dad played loads after Mum left.
Exogenesis Symphony Part 1 (Overture),
Exogenesis Symphony Part 2 (Cross Pollination),
Exogenesis Symphony Part 3 (Redemption)
"I think our last few albums have taken a while to warm up, but with this one all the singles are first. As the album goes on it gets more experimental, and then the really deep stuff is at the end. Recording it was hard because Matt had the vision for it in his head and Dom [Muse drummer] and I didn't really understand it at first. When Matt first showed it us, it just sounded like bits and pieces, it wasn't until the end that I could fully understand it. The lyrics deal with the notion that life was created somewhere else, and that we were out here either by accident or by someone else, and that it will get to the point where we've completely ravaged the planet. Then a select few will have to move on and start again. It's one big journey through space."
FHM says;
Sounds like Beethoven had some balls... and modern production techniques.