My Review of The 2nd Law

The 2nd Law is the 6th studio album by Muse. It's been out for quite awhile now so I'm sure you've heard of it if you're a fan. Here's what it looks like:

The Front Cover of The 2nd Law

By the way, I haven't got my hands on the physical copy of the album. I've been asking and looking around at stores but they didn't have it yet. But I will get a physical copy I will assure you!

So moving on, I have been listening to this album for quite some time now, but I did this review earlier when I was listening to it for the first time. So it's like a first impression review kind of thing. I'm about to tell you what I think about each song or what the song would be like in (my) words. So here goes!

Supremacy

The intro sounds quite massive, it makes me picture this whole scene of action and coolness. Think big, think Bond. Yeah this definitely reminds me of James Bond. The Bond-ish sounds can also be heard in the chorus. A little bit at the end at there's a very exciting part and at the very end, very 'Bond' again. About the lyrics, the topics revolves around politics and conspiracy I guess, typical Muse.

Madness

This is the first single so you probably have heard it lots of time. This song sounds quite electronic with synthesizer and electronic drums. The "ma ma ma ma ma madness" part is quite different, needs some time getting used to, but the riff still sounds like Muse completely. Vocally, I think it's a new challenge for Bellamy because it's not how he usually sings. Here it's more soft and stable. Chris's backing vocal is also soft and calming. With the deep lyrics, I can definitely hear the maturity of the band. This may sound strange at first but I think the music is so simple yet so rich. This song is not the kind of song you play over and over again until your ears bleed but it's a legacy song. You'll listen to this once in a while and never get sick of it. You'll never skip it when you stumble upon it on shuffle. I like it.

Anyway you have to see Chris’s gear for their SNL gig, playing this song.

I'd love myself one of that!

Cool right? It's not like it's something new, they use cool gears all the time.

Panic Station

Now this doesn't really sound like Muse. But surprisingly, I like it! No, LOVE IT! It's catchy and dancey, heavily influenced by 80s rock I guess. There's also a little bit of disco and funk too in this song, some brass instruments incorporated, resulting into a very rich-sounding and versatile song. Also, I really like the different vocal style, the shouting and repeating. I can't say it in words, you're just gonna have to listen!

Prelude

Orchestra like. Very big. Not much to say though only 57 seconds in length.

Survival

It's the Olympics song! Okay it's way past Olympics, I can't be that excited to use an exclamation mark. This song sounds like orchestra, but catchy. The intro caught my attention but once Bellamy sings, it's not quite what I was expecting. Doesn't mean it's bad though. The chorus is very Muse for you who has been missing it. The riff reminds me of Knights of Cydonia. It's genius. And it ends with a very biiiig ending! I love it.

Follow me

The beginning is very familiar. It's tame at first, but then it picks up. The chorus is very dubstep-heavy, so for those of you who likes Dubstep, well goodie goodie. The lyrics are different, it's like an empowerment song. Actually, kind of cheesy at some point. I mean: "I will always protect you my love"? At first I was like "ugh why so lovey dovey?". But turns out the song is about Bingham, Bellamy's child so well okay, he's gonna be a good dad.

Animals

At first I thought, hey another different sounding song! But NO, it turns out to be the usual Muse I'm used to. You'll start feeling it at the verse. I like this song but yeah it doesn't really stand out. Well it doesn't have to right!

Explorers

Another calm song. I didn't like some part of the lyrics at first, but then it sinks in. The piano-play is nice, I like it. At the end, there's a shush, the lyrics are like "shush, go to sleep". Maybe it's not for everyone, but for me? I'll kill to get shushed to sleep by Muse. Well, just kidding, you get the idea.

Big freeze

I love it! Love love it! Love the backing vocals! Love everything! Suits my taste really. Nothing really different, I think that's what gets me, not very experimental. Maybe playing it safe? I don't care, I love it!

Save me

It's not my favorite at first but then I thought... okay. It needs some time getting used to. Doesn't sound like the usual Muse but hey it's Wolstenholme's song! He gets the spotlight! He leads the vocals and wrote the song. His voice is quite powerful but also calming.Overtime, this song grows on me, so I think it's good.

Liquid state

Oh rock! The god of rock blesses this song. The intro is very very rock. Bless Wolstenholme for leading the vocals. He wrote the song too. It may not be Muse's kind of rock, but it's good. Purer, instead of alternative. This is one of the biggest contributor to the diversity of this album.

The 2^nd Law: Unsustainable

Well I have mixed feelings about this. At first I thought it sounds kinda scary, no, mysterious. Also it's very dubsteppy, which I'm not a big fan of. I thought it didn't sound like Muse at all but hey, it's the new Muse right? Then there's also this woman voice quoting the 2nd Law of thermodynamics. Nerdy much Bellamy? Well just kidding, they've always been a bit nerdy I guess. Not my kind of song, but I'm not saying it's bad. But yeah I will not listen to this over and over again.

The 2^nd Law: Isolated System

Mystery like good. It's not different, not electronic. It ends up as kind of boring. 5 minutes of instruments and some voices saying "Isolated system" over and over again. I won't play it so frequently.

               

Overall

So it's alternative rock, pop, disco, dub step, orchestra, and a little bit of ska in one giant pot. The vocal is also more diverse in technique. The lyrics are not likeable in some parts for some audience. But overall I like this album. It's experimental, but good. It's good to tweak here and there sometimes to keep it fresh. To summarize:

Usual Muse: Supremacy, Survival, Animals, Explorers, Big Freeze, The 2nd Law Isolated System

Experimental: Madness, Panic Station, Follow Me, Save Me, Liquid State, The 2nd Law Unsustainable

On the verge of being boring: Prelude, The 2nd Law Isolated System

I rate this album 4 out of 5. Probably a bit biased because I just love these guys so much. But yeah listen to it if you haven't!

Prometheus – An honest review of a stupid person?

**WARNING MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! Do not proceed if you cannot handle me being a funsucker**

Do you know the first word that came out of my mouth right when the film just ended?

DAFUQ???

“Hi I am Ridley Scott and this is Prometheus. Do you want some answers with that?”

Maybe you would thought that I said that because of a major plot twist or cliffhanger at the end of the movie but no. I simply just did not get the whole thing. It was more like “What the fuck did I just watch?”.

I am sure Ridley Scott is a brilliant filmmaker. I mean, who am I to deny the talent of a Sir? He clearly changed the game in the science fiction film industry. But this one work of him, I just think it is not for me. In some ways it is really great, the actions, the effects, the gore.. inargueable. But on the other hand, there are just too many riddles. Sometimes too many puzzles are just too hard to take for a person. I had so many questions about the films: the storyline, the background, even about what a scene actually means. Some of them are:

1. In the opening scene, where did it take place? Why did he drink gooey shit?
2. Just what the fuck is that scary black goo?
3. Why did the rest of the engineers die?
4. Seriously what is up with the mural? Talk about creepy...
5. What did Dave actually say to the awoken engineer?
6. How did the living engineer find out that Shaw was still alive after the crash and everything?
7. Why is there an alien coming out of the engineers body?
8. How would David know where to go to the place of the maker of the Engineers?
9. How could Shaw trust David again?
10. So who made us?

The list goes on and on. There are just so many things to speculate that I was just left wondering what was it that Sir Ridley was actually trying to tell the audience.

I am a fan of open-ended films. You got some cliffhangers? Bring it on. But this one is just so much to take in 2 hours. Hell, maybe I still won't get it even if I watch it over and over again. The thing is though, this film got a decent tomatometer, 70ish on Rotten Tomatoes. So maybe, I'm just the one in a million who doesn't like the film just because I am too stupid.

And just some bits of wisdom from me, sometimes some questions are better left unanswered. A question about who made us is a potential starter of a chain reaction. Once you found out about the answer, then you will start asking “,who made our maker?”, and when you found out the answer you will start asking “, so who made our maker's maker?”, and the loop goes on and on. Trying to get an answer of a question of the past with such a huge effort and low chance of success, is it really worth it? Well as for me, I will just try to live in the moment.

Just try to live on, suckers.