TRACK OF THE DAY: Muse "Dead Inside"

Having only just recovered from seeing Muse live at Manchester Academy, Muse unveiled ‘Dead Inside‘, a track that has more twists and turns than your average helter-skelter.

Matt Bellamy describes this track as “where the story of the album begins, where the protagonist loses hope and becomes ‘Dead Inside’, therefore vulnerable to the dark forces introduced in ‘Psycho‘”. Whilst I may need to assume the crash position upon hearing the phrase ‘concept album’, I’ve undoubtedly succumb to the dark forces of ‘Dead Inside’ already.

Sporting a beat that initially sounds like a HAIM record, robotic bass and Matt Bellamy’s vocal acrobatics are all that’s needed to drive this hard hitting, musical wake-up call. With a wailing guitar interlude right after the first chorus, ‘Dead Inside’ takes no prisoners in its clinical execution.

With an outro more uplifting than a Wonderbra, Matt Bellamy’s voice soars over a flurry of frantic guitar chords, clean basslines and relentless percussion. With Matt Bellamy promising that our protagonist will be “defecting, revolting and overcoming these dark forces later in the story”, it’s difficult to not to wonder what lies ahead on ‘Drones‘. If ‘Dead Inside’ is anything to go by, I think they might just pull it off.

TRACK OF THE DAY: Muse "Dead Inside"

TRACK OF THE DAY: Muse "Psycho"

Muse are returning to their heavier roots with ‘Psycho‘, with fans instantly divided on how they feel about the matter. Featuring a riff that’s so heavy, it has its own BMI rating, ‘Psycho’ marks Muse’s return to the music world.

Whilst we all enjoyed tracks where a stuttering robotic voice repeated the word ‘madness‘ until our ears bled, I for one instantly feel like tearing my vest off and taking a day off work tomorrow. Yes ladies, I can be pretty reckless.

Based on a riff they regularly played live, ‘Psycho’ harks back to their ‘Origin of Symmetry‘ and ‘Absolution‘ days; it immediately brings back all the nostalgia of being an awkward teen with godlike music taste. These days, I’m an awkward adult with a music blog. Is that an improvement? Probably not. ‘Psycho’ feels less like a song and more like a five minute assault that constantly slaps you for listening to anything other than Muse whilst they’ve been gone.

It’s almost as if Royal Blood shone the Bat-signal after being the only rock band at the Brit Awards and Matt Bellamy arrived in tight leather pants (to be fair, he usually is wearing tight leather pants anyway). Whilst their forthcoming seventh studio album ‘Drones‘ is more than likely to have its fair share of indulgently long piano interludes too, anyone who can fit “your ass belongs to me now” into a credible song needs to be aggressively celebrated. Bring on ‘Drones’.

TRACK OF THE DAY: Muse "Psycho"