This is my first (of what I hope is many) music review. Recently, I’ve been listening to The Resistance — the new album from Muse. If you haven’t yet heard, I recommend that you give it a listen. Today, I’m going to review track 4: United States of Eurasia.
When I first heard this track I thought he was singing, “The United States of America”. What a cliché! I instantly hated the song. Then, the pre-chorus reminded me of Queen, so my brain instantly starting feeling like I should have been singing, “We are the champions my friend…”. But then only a few bars into the chorus, I’d remember that this wasn’t Queen, and be frustrated. That was, until I noticed that he was singing Eurasia, not America. Suddenly I was intrigued.
Some people judge music completely by what it sounds like, others (a lot of church people seem to be in this category :-P) judge music solely by the lyrics and don’t care about the musical side. I sit in the middle of these two camps. In my opinion the best songs are those where the music and lyrics go hand in hand. I’ve fallen in love with songs because I’ve loved the sound, but only moments later hated them because of their shallow/disturbing lyrics.
I love how it musically keeps jumping between different genres. It has everything from regular Muse sounding music, to oriental interludes, to pre-chorus’s that take you back to the 80’s classics of Queen, and to a beautiful outro comprised of classical piano. This is why it reminds me of that classic Queen song, Bohemian Rhapsody. In fact, if you compare the form of both of these songs, this song my Muse appears to be a complete rip-off. If you haven’t heard it, here’s Bohemian Rhapsody:
So why have they mixed so many genres into one song? Well I have a theory: The lyrics are about how war is pointless, how we are all the same, and how we should stop fighting and unite together as the United States of Eurasia. What better way to convey the idea of different cultures / opinions uniting than creating a song that combines all these different genres. Especially since all of the genres originate from either Europe or Asia!
I think Muse have done a fantastic job of knitting these lyrics and genres together. So what if they have ripped off ideas from Queen? It’s still a great song in it’s own right. So go, give it a listen NOW!
It’d be great to hear what you think, so leave some comments below.
October 12th, 2009 at 10:19 p.m.
Comment text: Whoops, I forgot to comment. You must feel really unloved cos no one did :( Anyway, I really liked this review. It was very well thought out and well written :D
(Now I have the album playing)
I agree with what you said about music and lyrics needing to be brilliant and complimentary. I find some Hillsong lyrics really shallow and actually only vaguely theologically sound and the music also really simple...which I suppose is good for congregations but when the accompanying lyrics are weak then it's frustrating.
Coldplay has good music and I suppose we've all grown to love Chris Martin's bizarre poetry, but back in the days of Parachutes the lyrics were really grating. Skin and bones? In a love song? Come on now!
I have to admit I hadn't paid any attention to any Muse lyrics, but I'd gotten a general sense from previous albums that they draw their inspiration from political themes. I think I'd appreciate their stuff more if I listened/read more carefully and tried to understand it. At least it's not all about love and break ups!