Muse – Super Massive Black Hole
What do you think of when you think of Muse? Giant infectious riffs? Funky basslines? Unusual harmonies? Dark lyrics? Innovative? Annoying? Overproduced? Abstract? Well, whatever you’ve thought of Muse in the past, go into this song with an open mind.
You might be fooled into thinking this is just another space inspired piano cum guitar standard Muse song from the title of the song. You really couldn’t be any further from the truth. Supermassive Black Hole sees the three piece take a completely different musical direction than any of their past material and sees them delve almost into the world of electronica or dance in places. The vocals and ideas could be compared to Prince in places with the words “baby” thrown in for good measure.
The song itself grabs you and pulls you in from the first 5 seconds with heavy distorted guitars running throughout the entire song and the song has an intriguing experimental feel. The middle eight sounds completely out of this world, a fusion of powerful experimental rock and electronica which works in perfect harmony.
We are reminded that deep down the song is still Muse only by Bellamy’s trade mark falsetto voice and Wolstenholme’s funky bassline. However this time, the falsetto runs throughout the song and is weaker than we all know that Bellamy is capable of.
Really, Muse have created this piece of music which will just make people see them into a new light. It is very hard to give it an overall score because of many reasons. Muse’s fans might wonder where they have heard the bass before and listen to it for the first time feeling completely lost or just not understanding where it all went wrong. However this is Muse reaching out to an entirely new audience and attracting many new fans no doubt.
For the people the song captures, it will seem addictive for the first few listens and leave the listener starving for another fix. Supermassive Black Hole at the end of the day is like marmite, you’ll love it and can’t get enough or you’ll just simply hate it. But whatever you do, don’t ignore it.
By Helen Daw
