THE RESISTANCE

I had written a long and detailed review of this album but the website crashed on me when I submitted it. Therefore, I will just say:

- The production is great. MUSE are excellent producers now.

- The songwriting is not that great. A few standout tracks ("Unnatural Selection", "The Resistance", "MK Ultra") mask the lesser ones (the whole "Exegesis Symphony").

- Quoting Chopin and Camille Saint-Saens literally just for the sake of doing it proves nothing more than the fact that Bellamy has musical culture way beyond rock. And that he can play, too.

- U2 and QUEEN are constant reference points in many of the tracks (including the title track and the more-than-obvious "United States of Eurasia".) MUSE has stopped sounding like MUSE with the exception of their more dramatic, better crafted songs ("Unnatural Selection".)

- The album is a cliche-fest. But the cliches are applied masterfully.

- The album is a pop record. very good at that. But there's almost nothing here that can match the subversion, the innovation and originality of "Absolution" or even some moments in "Origin of Symmetry" and "Black Holes and Revelations".

- There's really very little "resisting" in "The Resistance". The album is an adaptation to the system by a band that has adopted it for its own benefit.

- It absolutely sucks to have written a LONG review and have an error eliminate it forever. It takes all the will to write reviews away from the reviewer.

- For any prospective PA reviewer: please write your review on MSword or any other word processor, and save it constantly, lest you lose everything and have to write a ridiculous, almost-argument-less review like this one. Do NOT write directly in the album's page.