Three years after The Resistance, Muse is back with The 2nd Law, and it was well worth the wait. The 2nd Law is different from almost everything the band has done thus far. It offers a new feel to the band, as well as holding true to much of what they’ve done in the past; there is a moderate departure from older albums while keeping key elements that prevent the band from losing all ties to their past music. While it isn’t everything that they have done in the past, Muse offers another great album with “The 2nd Law.”
While the title The 2nd Law does not make much sense to start with, it does with the last two songs “The 2nd Law: Unsustainable” and “The 2nd Law: Isolated System.” These two songs are based upon the second law of thermodynamics, which completely threw me off. They relate how human advancement will be constrained by the second law, that says (in part) that the entropy, or randomness, of an isolated system can only increase and will cause complications. I never really would have guessed that the band would have borrowed a physics lesson for two songs, let alone the album title. However, listening to the album again, and then a third time, the second law has some underlying tones in many of the songs on the album, as well as relating to themes of past songs. It is a clever way of tying the new album to older albums through a scientific law that, without listening to the album in its entirety, would seem irrelevant.
Something that is evident very early on in the album is a new, more electronic sound. This is most present in “Madness,” “Follow Me,” and “The 2nd Law: Unsustainable.” These songs all sound like a hybrid of the band’s more traditional rock and some electronic elements. Nero, a British dubstep duo, did some additional producing on “Follow Me,” which enhanced the electronic, dubstep-like sound on the track. “Madness” features some new instruments for the band, and is responsible for the heavily electronic sound at the beginning of the song. I find this change welcome. While it is something different and unexpected from the band, it wasn’t a change for the worse because the band kept the guitar and drums that really sounds like Muse while adding new elements.
Bassist Christopher Wolstenholme also throws fans two major curveballs with “Save Me” and “Liquid State:” both songs are written and sung by Wolstenholme himself. Aside from backing vocals, he has not sung on any of the band’s previous albums. However, despite it being his first go-round as a vocalist, it was no mistake. The songs are something very different from anything the band has done in past albums. They are both incredible songs because they not only offer a departure from Bellamy’s vocals, but also have an overall different sound from what he typically writes.
The 2nd Law is something very different from what Muse has done in the past, but it is nothing short of another success by the band. They experimented with new sounds and influences, and they all came out successful. While the album isn’t like those that have come before it, that fact does not detract from the album as a whole. At the end, you aren’t left wanting the old Muse, but rather embracing The 2nd Law Muse and their new music.
