Muse
By Daniel Tumani
A skillful yet bizarre song… 27/06/2012
Muse have just released ‘Survival’, a 5 minute epic for the London Olympics full of classical music, choirs, guitar solos and Matt’s falsetto voice. The first time I heard it I thought it was weird. It just seemed filled with so many types of music. When I listened to it for the second time, I was definitely more drawn to it.
There’s a prelude before the song, which is a typical Muse classical piece. It’s very reminiscent of the Exogenesis Symphony. After the prelude, a lively piano is introduced, which reminded me of I Belong to You at first. It’s very catchy to be honest and I actually quite like it. The verse soon kicks in, with Matt singing in a very hushed tone. I don’t like the lyrics in the song, there is the very cheesy, pointless ‘I’m gonna win’ which I thought was only there for the Olympic feel; it didn’t mean anything else. Halfway through the verse, Chris (I believe) comes in with very Queen-esque backing vocals, which I think is a nice touch. The song starts to build up with Matt’s vocals getting edgier and a choir in the background. The song then really starts to kick in.
A pounding distortion guitar breaks through, Matt plays a great solo with the choir still backing the track. The cheesy lyrics come back again ‘It’s a race, I’m gonna win’ but this time with more power. After more build up, Matt unleashes his classic falsetto voice which breaks into an amazing break filled with heavy guitars, pounding bass, more crazy solo’s before ending with one more falsetto.
I didn’t really like the song at first, and I still think it’s pretty wacky, but it suits the Olympics well and I really like the ending to the song. It’ll be an interesting song when performed live as well; I think the guitar will have more of a place in a live performance. Survival is a good song, but at times it seems like an over generic Olympic track with strong hints of Queen. I still look forward to The 2nd Law and I’m sure Survival will keep growing on me.
shavedtuna 