THE RESISTANCE

The Resistance sees Muse descending into self-parody. It's not that Matt Bellamy's goofy conspiracy theories are more prominent in the lyrics than ever before, because he does at least manage to pitch them at a level where you could interpret them as being a general meditation on any revolt against oppression. It's not even the lighter, bouncier nature of the music, which puts me in mind of a sort of pop-punk take on the Muse sound. No, what gets to me is the fact that the band seem more inclined to wheel out the tired old cliches of their sound and give them another spin than to come up with any new tricks. Essentially, every Muse album from Absolution onwards has been a progressively less interesting version of Origin of Symmetry, a height I don't think the band are even attempting to match any more.