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Musical Style

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Stylistic approach

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Muse uses sounds from genres such as electronic music, progressive metal[1] art rock,[2][3] and forms such as classical music and rock opera.[4] The band's style has been also described as "space rock."[5][6][7] In 2002, Bellamy described Muse as a "trashy three-piece".[8] In 2005, Pitchfork described Muse's music as "firmly ol' skool at heart: proggy hard rock that forgoes any pretensions to restraint ... their songs use full-stacked guitars and thunderous drums to evoke God's footsteps."[9] AllMusic described their sound as a "fusion of progressive rock, glam, electronica, and Radiohead-influenced experimentation."[10] On the band's association with progressive rock, Howard said, "I associate it [progressive rock] with 10-minute guitar solos, but I guess we kind of come into the category."[11]

For their second album, Origin of Symmetry, the band wanted to create a more "confident" sound. In a September 2000 interview with Designer Magazine, Christopher Wolstenholme said, "Looking back, there isn't much difference sonically between the mellow stuff and the heavier tracks. The heavy stuff really could have been a lot heavier and that's what we want to do with this album."[12] Their third release, Absolution (2003), draw influences from artists such as Queen[13] and features songs with prominent string arrangements. Black Holes and Revelations (2006) is a space rock-oriented album that was influenced by artists such as Depeche Mode, as well by various styles of Asian and European music, such as Middle Eastern music[14] and Naples music.[15]

The 2nd Law (2012) was influenced by funk, film scores, electronica, and dubstep. Musicians who influenced The 2nd Law include Skrillex,[16] Led Zeppelin,[17], and Hans Zimmer.[18]

Stylistic approach

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Musical approach

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Lead vocalist Matt Bellamy uses vibrato, falsetto, and melismatic phrasing. His vocal style is influenced by Jeff Buckley, whom he called "one of my main vocal influences."[19] As a pianist, Bellamy often utilizes the broken chords technique (arpeggio) on several piano-based songs. Some influences in Bellamy's playing include classical and Romantic era composers such as Hector Berlioz,[20] Sergei Rachmaninoff,[21] Johann Sebastian Bach,[22] Camille Saint-Saëns, and Frédéric Chopin.[23]

In several Muse songs, the bassline, performed by Wolstenholme, is used as the central motif, often with the guitar providing an extra layer to the song. The bassline adds embellishments in the lower register. The bass is usually fuzz bass, an overdriven, distorted tone. Other electronic effects are also applied to the bass tone to achieve a greater weight and depth. This allows the bass guitar to serve as counterfoil to the main chord progression, often playing higher notes, or electronic sounds. Both bass and guitar also play unison parts on occasion, adding emphasis to specific melodies and riffs. Both Bellamy and Wolstenholme use touch-screen controllers, often built into their instruments; this touch screen can control a variety of synthesizers and digital effects pedals but is most often used to control a Korg Kaoss pad or Digitech Whammy pedal.[24]

As a guitarist, Bellamy often uses the arpeggiator and pitch-shift effects to create a more "electronic" sound, citing Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello as influences for this method.[25] His guitar playing is also influenced by a more classical harmonic aesthetic, particularly the style of Latin and Spanish guitar music, as Bellamy cites: "I learnt some Spanish guitar music that opened up a world of different harmonies and making music and a different sort of passion; very heavy music but it hasn't got a distortion pedal."[26]

meh

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[27]

Seven Nation Army

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Reception

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"Seven Nation Army" has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards. Heather Phares of AllMusic described it as a "breathtaking opener" to the album Elephant,[28] and Bram Teltelman of Billboard suggested that "adventurous rock programmers might want to join the 'Army'".[29] In particular, "Seven Nation Army"'s central riff has been the subject of praise since the song's release. A writer for Rolling Stone described it as the best riff of the 2000s decade,[30] and Rebecca Schiller of NME wrote that the riff is "the most maddeningly compulsive bassline of the decade, and not even actually played on a bass guitar".[31] Critics also praised Meg White's drumming—a "hypnotic thud" according to Tom Maginnis of AllMusic.[32][1] Bram Teltelman of Billboard described the drumming as "simple but effective",[29] and Phares said it was "explosively minimal".[28]

Critics compared the song to the White Stripes' other work. According to Teltelman, "Seven Nation Army" represented an effort to "defy categorization", especially the garage rock label that had been attributed to the band. He further wrote that it was "much more of a straightforward rock song" than the band's 2002 single "Fell in Love with a Girl".[29] Phares found "Seven Nation Army", along with "The Hardest Button to Button", to "deliver some of the fiercest blues-punk" of any song by the White Stripes,[28] and Alex Young of Consequence of Sound viewed it as the band's best song.[33]

Critics have ranked the song among the best tracks of the 2000s decade; it appeared on NME's[2] and Rolling Stone's retrospective lists,[3] and it was placed at number one on Consequence of Sound's "Top 50 Songs of the Decade".[33]

Future Present Past

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Background

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In 2013, the Strokes released the album Comedown Machine, fulfilling a contract to release five albums under RCA Records. [4] The next year, the Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. expressed hope that a new album would be released in 2015, though he expressed uncertainty that this would transpire.[34]

During the band's performance at the Landmark Music Festival in September 2015, the Strokes lead signer Julian Casablancas said that the band was holding studio sessions.[35] According to the Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi, the tracks on featured on the EP were initially recorded with the intention of creating a full-length album, but the band opted to release them in the form of an EP.[5]

Prior to the announcement of Future Present Past, the Strokes were announced as the headline performance at the 2016 Governors Ball Music Festival. When asked on Twitter if the band would perform new songs at the festival, the Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. responded, "You'll just have to wait and see."[36] Meanwhile, the Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas had announced that he would host a monthly radio show called Culture Void for Sirius XM, prompting rumors that he would use the show to premiere Strokes music.[6]

Composition

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The opening track "Drag Queen" features post-punk influences and pitch-shifted, compressed vocals.[7][8] Its bassline drew comparisons to Joy Division and its successor New Order.[9][10][11][12][13] Critics viewed its anti-capitalist, dystopia-focused lyrics as an exploration of themes that had influenced Casablancas' songwriting outside of the Strokes, including for The Voidz' 2014 album Tyranny.[14][15]

Drowned in Sound's Derek Robertson described "Oblivius" as maintaining the "very Occupy serious" tone of "Drag Queen"'s lyrics while introducing a more "joyous" sound.[16]

Critics found "Threat of Joy" to be reminiscent of the Strokes' musical style in their debut album Is This It.[17][18] NME's Barry Nicolson noted the simplicity of the song's main riff and Casablancas' ad-libbing as influences from the Strokes' earlier work.[19]

Blunderbuss

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Composition

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Blunderbuss is a blues rock album[37] that incorporates a variety of musical elements.[38] "Missing Pieces" and "Take Me with You When You Go" resemble progressive folk music,[39] and "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep" is a country rock song.[40] R&B is present in White's cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin'",[39] which includes female backing vocalists.[41] "Freedom at 21" contains hip hop influences,[42] and it uses a "clattering drum pattern"[43] that was achieved by placing a tape echo on a drumbeat that Carla Azar had played.[44] "On and On and On" presents various moods and musical elements throughout.[43][38] The final track, "Take Me with You When You Go", begins with "cool jazz breeziness"[38] written in a 3
4 time signature,[45] then transitions to a "frantic rock" sound.[38] Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal found the album's "early rock, folk, and country styles" to resemble the Beatles' self-titled album.[41] The country soul[39] title track "Blunderbuss" and "Hypocritical Kiss" have been compared by critics to the works of Bob Dylan,[46][47] and The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick compared "Weep Themselves to Sleep" to music on David Bowie's Aladdin Sane.[46] White occasionally sings in falsetto on the album.[43] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone noted the presence of "made-in-Nashville flourishes" throughout the album, namely the fiddle, the mandolin, and the pedal steel guitar.[39] "Missing Pieces" opens with a Rhodes piano and continues to use the instrument throughout,[48][41] and "Sixteen Saltines" consists of "crunchy chords".[49] The acoustic guitar and the Wurlitzer electric piano are prominent on the song "Love Interruption",[50][51] which features vocals from Ruby Amanfu[48] as well as the bass clarinet, played by Emily Bowland.[51] Steve Kandell of Spin described the song as consisting of "mid-tempo soul",[52] and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune noted the song's "moody atmosphere".[38] "Weep Themselves to Sleep" includes an "itchy and needling" guitar solo that consists of two guitars playing in different channels.[40] This solo has the effect of transitioning out of an atmosphere of "orchestrated stateliness".[38] Billboard described "Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy" as having a "complex, hopscotching melody and rhythm".[53] The melody and lyrics for the song were conceived in a dream; upon awaking, White "forced [him]self" to record what he had dreamt.[42] "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep" is written in a "jazzy tempo", and it contains a violin solo.[53]

Critics noted similarities and differences among Blunderbuss and music White had written for other musical projects, including the White Stripes, the Dead Weather, and the Raconteurs. The Toronto Star's Ben Rayner stated that White "doesn't feel much like playing the showboating White Stripes guitar god", though he mentioned "flashes of Stripe-esque fury" in the song "Sixteen Saltines".[54] Other critics compared "Sixteen Saltines" to the White Stripes' "Blue Orchid".[48][52] Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound noted that "Love Interruption" was not as well-received as "Sixteen Saltines", "probably because with the Wurlitzer and the clarinet, ['Love Interruption'] didn't necessarily relive those feelings of seeing the [White Stripes]."[49] Billboard viewed "I'm Shakin'" and "Trash Tongue Talker" as resembling music on Wanda Jackson's The Party Ain't Over, which White produced.[53] Dombal described the album as being "closer to earth than [White's] fantastic White Stripes yet further away than the sometimes-pedestrian Raconteurs or Dead Weather".[41] The Sunday Times remarked that "if [White's] lyrics seem oppressively focused on one subject, his music heads happily all over the place, echoing all the previous aspects of his career and wandering into new areas."[55]

Tracks 1–7

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The album opens with a six-note riff played on a Rhodes piano in the progressive folk-influenced track "Missing Pieces".[20][21] Its lyrics the loss of body parts to characterize what NME's Barry Nicolson described as "the give-and-take of relationships": (lyrics omitted from user namespace).[22]

The blues rock[23] track "Sixteen Saltines" is the most reminiscent of the White Stripes on the album.[24][25] The song features "crunchy chords" atop lyrics consisting of imagery describing high school tropes and abandonment at sea, as its "emasculated, exasperated" narrator struggles with the conspicuousness of a former lover.[26][27][28]

  1. ^ Palmedo, Tree A. "Muse Rides Electric Energy Through Overambitious Release". The Harvard Crimson.
  2. ^ DiGravina, Tim. "AllMusic Review by Tim DiGravina". AllMusic.
  3. ^ Farrar, Justin F. "Muse Rides Electric Energy Through Overambitious Release". Spin.
  4. ^ "Muse – 'The Resistance'". rocksound.tv. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  5. ^ Sharp, Tyler (5 February 2015). "Muse to release new album, 'Drones'". Alternative Press. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  6. ^ Hall, James (26 May 2013). "Muse, Emirates Stadium, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Muse : Paris: Bercy: Tuesday November 18". NME. 12 September 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Muse interview on BBC 2002". YouTube. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
  9. ^ Ubl, Sam (5 July 2006). "Muse - Black Holes and Revelations". Pitchfork. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  10. ^ Phares, Heather. "Muse > Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  11. ^ Masters, Tim (23 September 2009). "It's back... Prog rock assaults album charts". BBC News.
  12. ^ "muse : archives | microcuts.net | September 2000". microcuts.net. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  13. ^ "Muse Absolution: Album Review The best Muse album to date!". classicrockhistory.com. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  14. ^ Simpson, Ernest. "Muse: Black Holes and Revelations". Treble. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  15. ^ "Muse – Intergalacticists Stride Our World". musicOMH. Archived from the original on 7 November 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  16. ^ "Muse Reveals Skrillex As Major Influence on New Album 'The 2nd Law'". MTV. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  17. ^ Sutherland, Mark. "Muse Fill London Show With Songs From 'The 2nd Law". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  18. ^ "Muse reveal 'The Dark Knight Rises' composer Hans Zimmer is a key influence on 'The 2nd Law'". NME. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  19. ^ Reed, Ryan. "The Timeless Influence of Jeff Buckley's Masterpiece". Esquire. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  20. ^ Lynskey, Dorian. "Muse: 'We like pushing it as far as we can'". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 Jun 2016.
  21. ^ "Deezer Close Up Interview - Muse". Deezer. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  22. ^ Laurence, Rebecca. "Pop's music classical inspiration". Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  23. ^ "Muse Interview". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 June 2015
  24. ^ "Muse Gear Guide - Matt Bellamy's FX Pedals". Dolphin Music. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference bellamy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "muse : archives | microcuts.net | September 2000". microcuts.net. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  27. ^ Doyle, Patrick (February 11, 2013). "Jack White Deep Into 'Blunderbuss' Follow-Up". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  28. ^ a b c Phares, Heather. "Elephant - The White Stripes". AllMusic. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  29. ^ a b c Teltelman, Bram (March 29, 2003). "Singles". Billboard. Vol. 115, no. 13. New York City, New York: Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 32. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
  30. ^ "100 Best Songs of the 2000s". Rolling Stone. June 17, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  31. ^ Schiller, Rebecca (October 6, 2011). "150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years". NME. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference maginnis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ a b "CoS Top 50 Songs of the Decade: 25-1". Consequence of Sound. 2009. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  34. ^ Renshaw, David (April 1, 2014). "Albert Hammond Jr says The Strokes will 'hopefully' record new album in 2015". NME. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  35. ^ "The Strokes Are Back in the Studio". DIY Magazine. September 28, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  36. ^ Gordon, Jeremy (May 24, 2016). "Julian Casablancas to Host Sirius XM Show". Pitchfork. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
  37. ^ Coffey, Russ (April 20, 2012). "CD: Jack White - Blunderbuss". The Arts Desk. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  38. ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference chicago-tribune-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference rolling-stone-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  40. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nyt-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  41. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference pitchfork-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  42. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference uncut-interview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  43. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference guardian-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ Boilen, Bob (April 17, 2012). "Jack White: How I Made 'Blunderbuss'". NPR. 3 minutes, 1 second. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  45. ^ "Take Me With You When You Go by Jack White - Digital Guitar Tab". Musicnotes.com. Universal Music Publishing Group. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  46. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference daily-telegraph-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  47. ^ Cite error: The named reference A.V. Club was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  48. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference nme-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  49. ^ a b Roffman, Michael (April 23, 2012). "Jack White – Blunderbuss". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  50. ^ Cite error: The named reference billboard-love-interruption was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  51. ^ a b Goodwyn, Tom (February 15, 2012). "Watch Jack White's new video for 'Love Interruption'". Uncut. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  52. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Spin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  53. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference billboard-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  54. ^ Cite error: The named reference toronto-star-review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  55. ^ ME (April 22, 2012). "JACK WHITE Blunderbuss", The Sunday Times. :30
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