The Wow! Signal (album)

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Cover art
Muse album
Name The Wow! Signal
Tracks 10
Total length 45:25
Recorded 2025–2026
Writer/composer Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, Christopher Wolstenholme et al.
Producer Muse, Dan Lancaster
Art work Ryan Clark & Kevin Moore (Mindreader Inc.)
Publisher Helium 3, Warner
Format(s) CD, LP, download, cassette
Catalogue № 5026854665771 (CD)
Release date 26th June 2026
Chart position TBD
album chronology
Will of the People
←
The Wow! Signal
Singles
Unravelling Cover art L.jpgBeWithYouCover.jpgCryogen Single Fanmade.pngHexagonsCoverFanmade.png


Background & Information

In Feburary 2025, Chris appeared on an episode of The Leona Graham Podcast, where he discussed various topics, including Muse. During the interview he stated that the band would likely start work on their tenth studio album in the next few months, and "barring any disasters" he expected the album to release in 2026. He expressed doubt that the band would go back to releasing albums as frequently as before due to age and family commitments, which suggests a new album every four (or more) years could be the band's release pattern moving forwards. He also added that the band's record contract with Warner had ended, and the band were "considering all options" as regards to whether they re-sign with Warner or join a different label.[1][2]

In the beginning of June of 2025, Dan Lancaster made an Instagram post with a series of photos, one of them showing Chris at Abbey Road Studios, with producer Aleks Von Korff, hinting at the band already recording new material.[3]

On 19 June, Matt was interviewed on BBC Radio 1 ahead of the release of the single Unravelling, where he opened up more about their potential next album. He stated that Unravelling was written and recorded specifically with their run of summer festival dates that year in mind, given the heavier nature of many of those festivals. He said that while their next release would likely be diverse in terms of genres, the band were "digging" the heavier vibe of Unravelling and that the song could inform future songs. He added that he had begun writing more songs, though whether they would lead to an album, EP, or a collection of singles he was unsure of at the time. He additionally confirmed that touring member Dan Lancaster would be producing the new songs alongside the band.[4]

In December 2025, a short clip posted by Muse as part of Spotify Wrapped saw Matt, in his Los Angeles studio, announce that the band are in the process of recording the new album. He said that Unravelling was "just the beginning" and that more new music would be coming "next year".[5] Another similar clip was posted on Muse's social media later that month, with Matt stating they had been working on new music for the past few months and encouraged fans to sign up for their newletter (via Openstage) to stay in touch with updates regarding new music.

In the album announcement's press release, the band have said that the album will, thematically, explore a "mix of cosmic mystery, existential hope, and the exhilarating possibility of contact with something far greater than ourselves".[6] Blood Records's album description states that "the band channel the anxieties of each era—technology, power, rebellion, and identity—into maximalist, stadium-ready rock that evolves with the times while staying unmistakably Muse."[7]

The first in-depth interview with the band about the album was posted for Rolling Stone France in May of 2026. In it, Bellamy mentioned that the album may be, thematically, one of the most personal recent Muse albums, mentioning that "Some subjects will be hard to address in interviews. That's part of the reason I didn't really want to do them — this is the only one I'm doing at the moment... / ...and it was fascinating, as an artist, to live through a series of personal events but also to live in the world as it is, and what we're all going through together, and to find myself in a more chaotic, less stable life, and therefore more immersed in the unknown and the mystery. It was interesting because it had been a long time since I'd felt like that. And on this album I have the impression that a large part of the music and lyrics doesn't come from me... / ...I was curious about letting go and embracing the chaos, the unknown, a little more. And I think that led me to songs that are more raw, more personal, and maybe a little less conceptual and a little more honest and true." Bellamy also said that "It was a bit like the early years of Muse, when the future is hazy, when you don't know whether the path you're on is the right one. Making this album was, for me, a cathartic and almost healing experience, comparable to the early years."[8]

Release

Six billboards set up for the Hexagons treasure hunt

On May 20th of 2025, a photo of Chris with the caption "An insect trapped in amber" was posted on Instagram. The post was later followed by a picture of Dom with an addition of a hidden text saying "I'm a fading pulse", and a video of Muse performing Mercy with a distorted image saying "I'm a static hum". Additionally, a snippet of a documentary about insects in amber was posted on Muse's TikTok,[9] leading fans to believe all three lines are part of the lyric of an upcoming single. On June 10th, Muse posted a short 10 second snippet of the upcoming song, with the caption "Something’s coming...".[10] A day later, Muse released another short video on social media containing a distorted version of a new song with the word "UNRAVELLING" shown at the end,[11] which ended up being the title of the song. Debuting live at an intimate warm-up gig on June 12th, it was announced that the song would be released on June 20th, as a single.[12]

Later in the year, a minute-long clip was sent out to fans via e-mail as an annual Christmas gift on December 24th, featuring Matt behind a church organ, accompanied with an intro of a then-upcoming single, Be With You. Following the Christmas announcement, the band cancelled all four of their planned winter shows in South Africa, India and the Middle East whilst going completely silent regarding any news about the release, all the way up until March 1st, when a short clip was posted on Muse's Instagram stories, depicting a signal tower, with its light spelling out "Be With You" in morse code.[13] A link with an option to sign-up for the mailing list was posted on socials, followed by more cryptic teasers with binary code spelling the name of the song. An option to pre-save the release on streaming services was subsequently sent by e-mail to those who signed-up. This included a clip, containing a reference to the "Wow! Signal"[14] with one of its codes appearing at the last second of the clip. "The Wow! Signal" later turned out to be the name of the album itself, the name and the release date of which, together with the tracklist and options to pre-order via the official site, were announced on March 19th, 2026, accompanied by the single, Be With You. The album was announced in partnership with "Sent Into Space", a company that specializes in brand promotion by launching their products into Earth's atmosphere, all while filming it on video. For the album announcement, a video screen was launched into the sky, sent over 20 miles into the atmosphere, before announcing the album's name and its release date of June 26th, 2026.

Following its debut live performance at London's Brixton Academy in early April 2026, Cryogen was announced to be the album's third single on April 22nd, 2026, and was released two days later on April 24th.

A Zoetrope animated vinyl edition of The Wow! Signal was put on Blood Records' website in May 2026. The Zoetrope vinyl was available in a limited batch of 5,000 copies which sold out in one day. The album's full tracklist featured on the front sleeve of the vinyl, with it revealing that Hush is a collaboration song between Muse and Ellie Goulding, along with all the details about songwriting.

Between May 15th and May 17th, 2026, Muse organised a Hexagons treasure hunt via their alternate Instagram account, "Museglobalist", using pictures with maps of areas in Sydney, New York City, Mexico City, Paris, London and Los Angeles, each one of them highlighted over with one red hexagon, with exact coordinates posted by Muse on their stories. Promotional billboards with lyrics and QR codes were found in each of the areas, with codes themselves leading to hidden sub-sites on Muse.mu, providing download links to six parts of the song, all of them stitching together the full piece.[15][16] The song was then released as the album's fourth single on May 19th, with those signed up to the Muse mailing list gaining access to the song a day early via an unlisted YouTube link.[17]

In Japan, the album will be released with two bonus tracks, live audio recordings of Unravelling and Be With You recorded at Brixton Academy in London.[18]

On May 29th, 2025, an augmented reality site was revealed by Muse, called "1420mhz.muse.mu", available via mobile phones only, featuring a snippet of Nightshift Superstar accessible by moving the mobile device in a specific position in a star constellation map.[19] A pro-shot video of Be With You performed at Brixton Academy was also hidden inside and can be seen here.

Recording

Like the previous album, this album appears to have been primarily recorded at Matt's Los Angeles studio, with parts of it being recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The organ on Be With You was recorded at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, boasting with the second largest pipe organ in the world.[20]

Like Will of the People, the album was produced and recorded by Muse themselves, with help from Aleks Von Korff. This time, however, Muse took Dan Lancaster on-board to help with production, mixing, aswell as songwriting, being the first Muse album to have a co-songwriter on most songs. The album also features Ellie Goulding on the song Hush.

Speaking aboout Lancaster's involvement and Goulding's collaboration, Bellamy said, in a Rolling Stone interview, that "It's mainly because of Dan. He joined the band as a live musician. We became really good friends on tour, we got to know each other, and we discovered he's a very good producer. He comes mostly from metal, but we could feel that he really wanted to do something with Muse beyond his role on stage. Over the years we started kicking around some ideas, including the idea of bringing in writers and musicians from outside the original trio. So we tried co-writing a track together. It was a first for me. And it just so happened that at the same moment, Ellie Goulding was in the studio next door — that wasn't planned at all. We were working together with several people, developing ideas, it was very open, just to see where it might go. At that stage it wasn't even a question of an album, it was just an experiment. And then the song started to take shape and it sounded really good... / ...I think we were almost about to head home, and she came in saying, "Oh, can I listen to what you're working on?" — we played it for her and she loved it. That's how we came up with the idea of a song, a duet between two people. From there we kept working until we finished the track. All of it was just a happy accident — she was right next door, and there I was, trying things out, and it just happened very naturally like that. But it's the only track with outside writers involved." In the interview Bellamy also mentioned that having Lancaster more involved this time helped them focus on playing music instead of worrying about the technical side of recording, mentioning that Wolstenholme was the only one who took over some of the engineering aspects, together with Dan.[21]

Artwork

The artwork represents the original Wow! signal's waveform floating in space, imagined as a 3D object, positioned infront of one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.[22] The same circular waveform, but in 2D, is also present on the First Press Edition vinyl's sleeve.

All the album's artwork (apart from the cover art for Unravelling, created by Diberkato) and the visual design for the packaging was, as per Metaform Studio's Instagram story, created by Mindreader Inc., a graphic design studio specialising in album artwork design, created by established artwork designers Ryan Clark and Kevin Moore, whose combined work includes work for artists such as Foo Fighters, Awolnation, Wolfmother, Alice In Chains and more.[23][24]

Touring

First gigs of the The Wow! Signal Tour were announced in late 2025, with a complete North American leg of the tour announced on March 27th, 2026, about a week after the album announcement. The NA leg will feature Muse performing across amphitheatres around the U.S. and Canada throughout the summer of 2026.

A small promotional gig took place on April 3rd, 2026, at Brixton Academy in London, during which Matt mentioned "being back in November", hinting at the UK/EU tour taking place in autumn of 2026, the dates of which are yet to be announced.

Tracklist

CD/Digital

  1. The Dark Forest – 5:15
  2. Nightshift Superstar – 4:07
  3. Shimmering Scars – 4:28
  4. Cryogen – 5:01
  5. Be With You – 3:35
  6. Hexagons – 5:26
  7. The Sickness In You & I – 4:17
  8. Unravelling – 3:58
  9. Hush (feat. Ellie Goulding) – 3:55
  10. Space Debris – 5:23

JP CD

  1. The Dark Forest – 5:15
  2. Nightshift Superstar – 4:07
  3. Shimmering Scars – 4:28
  4. Cryogen – 5:01
  5. Be With You – 3:35
  6. Hexagons – 5:26
  7. The Sickness In You & I – 4:17
  8. Unravelling – 3:58
  9. Hush (feat. Ellie Goulding) – 3:55
  10. Space Debris – 5:23
  11. Be With You (Live at Brixton)
  12. Unravelling (Live at Brixton)

Vinyl

Interstellar Objects (Side A)

  1. The Dark Forest – 5:15
  2. Nightshift Superstar – 4:07
  3. Shimmering Scars – 4:28
  4. Cryogen – 5:01
  5. Be With You – 3:35

Radio Transmission (Side B)

  1. Hexagons – 5:26
  2. The Sickess In You & I – 4:17
  3. Unravelling – 3:58
  4. Hush (feat. Ellie Goulding) – 3:55
  5. Space Debris – 5:23

Cassette

Side A

  1. The Dark Forest – 5:15
  2. Nightshift Superstar – 4:07
  3. Shimmering Scars – 4:28
  4. Cryogen – 5:01
  5. Be With You – 3:35

Side B

  1. Hexagons – 5:26
  2. The Sickess In You & I – 4:17
  3. Unravelling – 3:58
  4. Hush (feat. Ellie Goulding) – 3:55
  5. Space Debris – 5:23

The Wow! Signal gallery

  • Front cover

  • CD

  • Cassette

  • Red Vinyl

  • CD + Vinyl Bundle

  • Collectors Edition Vinyl (Muse Store Exclusive)

  • Limited Edition First Press Edition Vinyl (Muse Store Exclusive)

  • CD + Cassette Bundle

  • CD + First Press Vinyl Bundle

  • CD + Zine Bundle (Muse Store Exclusive)

  • First Press Collectors Bundle

  • HMV Exclusive Transcluscent Red & Black Marble Vinyl

  • Rough Trade Transcluscent Red & Grey Galaxy Vinyl

  • Zoetrope Vinyl

Personnel

Unofficial & incomplete, based on information released so far.

Muse

  • Matt Bellamy - Vocals, backing vocals, keyboards, piano, art direction
  • Chris Wolstenholme - Bass, backing vocals, production, engineering, art direction
  • Dominic Howard - Drums, percussion, drum programming, art direction

Additional Performers & Production

Art

  • Jesse Lee Stout - Creative direction
  • Ryan Clark (Mindreader Inc.) - Artwork
  • Kevin Moore (Mindreader Inc.) - Artwork
  • Drew Tetz - Zoetrope vinyl art

The Wow! Signal recording gallery

References

  1. ↑ https://youtu.be/WCPWR4WDMYs&t=632
  2. ↑ https://www.nme.com/news/music/muses-chris-wolstenholme-teases-work-on-new-album-3836957
  3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/DKpHR_oMO5O/?img_index=17
  4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC4V7W5oXg8
  5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1pd3bd9/new_album_is_coming/
  6. ↑ https://press.warnerrecords.com/muse
  7. ↑ https://blood-records.co.uk/products/wow
  8. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1tnjc3g/rolling_stones_interview_fully_translated/
  9. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@muse/video/7506942503468436738
  10. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/DKupLLANhJw/
  11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tlr7Hmk8nMw
  12. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/DK1_PcGNXgk/
  13. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1ri4dfu/muse_just_posted_a_teaser_on_their_socials_anyone/
  14. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
  15. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1tepf7o/hexagons_treasure_hunt_megathread/
  16. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1tepf7o/hexagons_treasure_hunt_megathread/
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9WrmOqI7TI
  18. ↑ https://tower.jp/item/8033051
  19. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1tr6tn1/nightshift_superstar_clip/
  20. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/DWE0fJfmfCe/
  21. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/1tnjc3g/rolling_stones_interview_fully_translated/
  22. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkycNvrpjCs
  23. ↑ https://invisiblecreature.com/newsroom/announcing-mindreader
  24. ↑ https://www.mindreaderinc.com/
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