Muse is one of those bands for which I’ll drop everything when they have a new release. They are endlessly creative. No two albums are quite alike but they always rock harder than you expected in a new way. Will of the People came out on August 24, 2022 through Warner Music UK. Immediately out of the gate, you’re greeted with a high-energy blast of rebellion that beautifully melds the power of The Resistance with the electronica of Simulation Theory. Yet, Will of the People is very piano and bass heavy like 2nd Law.
Drawing from their past doesn’t mean that this isn’t a fresh new Muse masterpiece. There are a few parts where Matt Bellamy brings that guitar out of storage and blasts harder than he ever has before. The breakdowns on this record are the stuff of nightmares. Some of the lyrics explore new things that we haven’t heard from Muse before. They even bring out a pipe organ; they’ve used some arcane instruments before but I think this was a neat move.
It falls into the same trap as most of the band’s music for the last decade, where they get lost in the ballads and I get bored. All of the gems are in the first 1/3 of the record and it peters off from there. Even the closer We are Fucking Fucked, despite a great name, failed to grab me because I had already checked out of the hotel by then. The title track and Won’t Stand Down are definitely keepers to toss into your grab-bag of anti-government anthems.
Muse’s latest release has more teeth than Simulation Theory but it doesn’t have claws like Drones. The second half misses the mark but the first half makes up for it by bringing back all the great things we love about Muse in an original and exploratory way. It’s safe to say that when I left work two hours early to give it a listen, the resulting disciplinary action was worth it.
Spud media 