Anyone listen to their new album? I think it's really good. One or two songs they could've made better but the three part symphony at the end is amazing. What do you think? I've been reading online some fans don't like it. I don't see why. They're truely some good and talented musicians.

I concur on the Muse dislike.

Keep hearing that they are amazing and creative and unique and I'm just not hearing anything but a band who love The Bends a bit too much.

They are performing at the VMA's!

I heard it all the way through for the first time today and... it has its moments, but isn't going to make any Muse hater's or casual fans pledge undying allegiance. Prock rock fans might like or loathe it, even.

I was originally dead against them, almost had massively fallings out with friends at school and university over them, but by the time of the 4th album I'd softened my position to :"They are fairly derivative of other groups, particularly Radiohead, but when they do something a bit more leftfield they're more interesting.".

"United States of Eurasia" originally struck me as a MASSIVE Queen and Wings rip off, but subsequent airings just reveal that it's a big throwback to the prog-rock excesses of the 1970's like "Knights of Cydonia" was, which isn't cecessarily a bad thing in some respects as the whole indie ethic of simplifying and stripping back in guitar rock has reached the furthest point it can go really."Uprising" is an unconventional single, but that and I think a track that is called "Undisclosed Desires" are concessions to the crowd who prefer the heavier and more rock riff centric end of the Muse sound.

The bigger and more varied sound that was in place on then last album has broadened out, but at the same time I can imagine that Chris and Dom spent a lot of time drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in the studio while Matt did loads of guitars/vocals/synths/sax solos/orchestral arrangements. There is a palpable feeling of "When do we get started on the mosh pit friendly stuff" while listening. While broadening the sound and not just doing straightforward herad down full tilt headbanging cyber grunge like they started out doing is good for the band and stops them getting complacent, at the same time it feels like they've got to the point where they are bigger sounding but not necessarily better for sounding bigger, if that makes any sense?

There was talk of them doing a more electronic orientated album, but apart from big washes of keyboards and synths, we're still more firmly rooted in typical power trio guitars/bass/drums dynamics. They've not become Kraftwerk or New Order overnight, and in a way that's a shame as I think that if Bellamy worked out how to fuck around with electronics as much as he does with orchestras and his guitar, they could be onto something. Remain in Light this is not.

There is still a bit of Radiohead in there, and if you compared The Resistence as a fifth album to Amnesiac then you can see that the bands definitely have progressed at very different rates and that comparing the two isn't really that relevent any more (Resistence incorporating non-traditional rock stuff and re-wiring the formula in the case of Muse, Amnesiac deconstructing the essence of their sound and exploring post-rock and other weird spaces drawn from techno and electronica in the case of Radiohead). I could really tell Matt Bellamy was trying to not have a carbon copy of the patented Thom Yorke falsetto/mumbling vocal style, and in places that worked, but in others it sounded too forced and bombastic.

The die-hard fans will probably stick with them, but the more casual listeners may drift away or still turn up to gigs for the 'hits' that band has accumilated to date.

Just got the album myself from my motheerrr, and I'm slightly dissapointed by certain songs but pleasantly suprised by others. Uprising's fantastic and I love it but United States of Eurasia is just dull. I really liked the Exogeneses thing and thought that was pretty good, but the album should have been bigger because like 1/4th of the album is taken up just by that and they should have done more tracks like Unnatural Selection, but it's an okay album which - as repeatadly said - has it's moments. Most of which are boring, but the good ones are really good.

So I'd probably give it a 6.5/10

I think the resistance is great man, I am a die-hard muse fan and i love everything they do. only one word i could call them, GENIUS!!

The more I've listened to it the more I seem to enjoy it. Especially the three part symphony at the end. I still think Absolution was their best album though by far.