CD of The Week

There are plenty of adjectives to describe the music of British trio Muse, all synonyms for “large,” and I’ll probably use a few of them in this review. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard are back with The 2nd Law, their sixth studio album. When we last heard from them in 2009, they were ramping up their sound even more with the epic scope of The Resistance, which ended with the three-part “Exogenesis: Symphony.” On The 2nd Law, the guys manage to both expand the range of their music, while reigning themselves in at the same time.

Bellamy’s vocals get theatrical on the album opener “Supremacy,” but the band is reigned in on lead single “Madness.” On the U2-meets-George Michael (seriously!) track, just when you expect them to go big, they actually pull back. “Panic Station” is the funkiest song Muse has even written, and wonderfully over the top. Somehow they mash together the beat from Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot,” a quick melody from “Thriller” (you can’t miss it) and some INXS for good measure and it totally works. We already know the bombastic, Queen-tastic, Olympic anthem “Survival,” which strips down the global competition to its basic ethos of “It’s a race and I’m gonna win!”

The surprising “Animals” features some Santana-like polyrhythmic breakdowns and Latin guitar flourishes, while “Big Freeze” is very Achtung Baby, with some great Edge-inspired guitarwork from Bellamy. Near the end of the record, Wolstenholme sings lead on “Save Me” and “Liquid State.” As for the rumors that Muse would be embracing the dubstep/EDM sound on The 2nd Law, it’s primarily prevalent in the first half of the two-part, album closing title suite. “The 2nd Law: Unsustainable” is essentially a “Fitter Happier”-style robo-voiced apocalyptic screed that segues into its second half, “Isolated System.”

For all the comparisons I’ve made here to other artists, The 2nd Law ultimately finds Muse absorbing those influences and assimilating them into their own identifiable, grandiose sound.