The Globalist (song)
| Muse song | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Globalist |
| Album/single | Drones |
| Length | 10:07 |
| Alternative titles | |
| First live performance | |
| Latest live performance | |
| Recorded | 2014/2015 - The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, Canada; 2015 - Air Studios, London, UK |
| Writer/composer | Matthew Bellamy |
| Producer | Muse, Robert "Mutt" Lange |
| Song Nav | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aftermath | < | The Globalist | > | Drones |
Description
Matt describes the song as being a ten-minute prog-rock nightmare dealing with the rise and fall of a dictator and is its own self-contained narrative.
Matt said that this song tells the same story as the concept section of the album, but with a bad ending.
Matt on The Globalist: "The first half sounds like something from a film, then it goes to a middle section that's metal then the outro is a big piano ballad." He also said that this song is one of his favourite songs from the album.
In this song, at the beginning the protagonist comes to sing about the end of freedom[1], he throws off the yoke of his oppressors and overthrowns the villians of the story, the ones who controlled all the drones only to create his own ultimate dictatorship-of-one[2] and throws all his bombs through all the world at his disposal and nearly destroys it, in the end the new dictator excuses himself by saying "I just wanted to be loved".[3]
Information
Confirmed by Matt during an interview with Radio 1, to be the sequel to Citizen Erased[4]
The song's making of video was leaked/uploaded on Vimeo on March 29th 2015.
The song is one of the last 2 songs, that, according to Matt Bellamy, break the rules of a 3-piece-band album analogy.
Whilst recording the slide guitar, Lange made Matt record the part 31 times- the most takes Matt has ever done.
This is the longest song in Muse's catalogue, with a length of 10:07, beating Citizen Erased at 7:21.
The part from 6:45 to 9:45 is a cover of Enigma Variation : Nimrod by Edward Elgar.
Instrumentation
The first part of the song is reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's Il Mercenario (L'Arena) song. The whistling and sound effects were recorded in Air Studios, in 2015, probably due to the long delay time in its largest recording room known as Lyndhurst Hall (where Muse have previously recorded percussion for Unsustainable. In the middle part a heavy 7-string guitar riff (previously posted on Muse's Instagram) kicks in, and the drums and bass kick in shortly after. After that it turns into a slow piano ballad. Muse have also posted a lot of teasers for this particular song on Instagram during the recording process.
The heavy riff, especially when the drums kick in, reminds of Helsinki drum & bass jam, played during The Resistance Tour by Chris and Dom. The last part also has a Queen vibe, and is similar to one of Muse's previous works, Mon Cœur S'ouvre à Ta Voix. In the beginning, it features a slow-paced quiet violin part, with Matt whistling over the top, and during the calm build-up, an acoustic guitar, along with the slide guitar kick in. Matt also throws boxes and chairs in the studio, to make it sound like a revolver shoot-out in the beginning. After that, both Matt and Chris start playing a heavy guitar riff, previously posted on their Instagram, and the drums build up the tension before the heavy part kicks in. After that, when it kicks into a ballad, the piano and drums kick in, alongside the clean bass. The build-up for the middle part also features sound effects of a countdown from a rocket launch.
Lyrics
You were never truly loved
You have only been betrayed You were never truly nurtured By churches of the state You were left unprotected To these wild and fragile lands
But you can rise up like a god Arm yourself, you can be strong You can build a nuclear power Transform the earth to your desire
Free your mind from false beliefs You can be the commander in chief You can hide your true motives To dismantle and destroy
Now you finally have the code I have given you the code
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Fire
There's no country left To love and cherish It's gone, it's gone for good It's you and me babe Survivors To hunt and gather memories Of the great nation we were
There's no countries left To fight and conquer I think, I destroyed them all. It's human nature The greatest hunter Will survive them all With no one left to love.
There's no culture left To love and cherish It's gone, you know it's gone for good A trillion memories Lost in space and time forevermore I just wanted I just needed to be loved.
References
- ↑ Gianni Sibilla. (2015-05-18). I Muse tornano al rock: Canzone per canzone, Cosa C'è dentro "Drones". Rockol. Retrieved 2015-05-18 from rockol.it.
- ↑ Gavin Haynes. (2015-05-20). Game of Drones: Album seven finds Muse at their ridiculous best.... NME. Retrieved 2015-05-20 from nme.com.
- ↑ L'édition du Soir by Philippe Richard. (2015-05-18). Que vaut le nouvel album de Muse?. Ouest-france. Retrieved 2015-05-18 from ouest-france.fr/.
- ↑ Matt Bellamy. (2015-03-23). Matt Bellamy on BBC Radio 1 - Dead Inside Premiere. Retrieved 2015-03-23.