Enthusiastic Muse fans everywhere are scurrying to get their ears on The Resistance, Muse’s fifth studio album, after a seemingly eternal three year wait.  So what will Muse’s cultish following think when they press play? Fans may glance down at their iPods, wondering if they mistakenly highlighted their “Best of Queen” playlist, only to realize that they are in fact actually listening to a radically transformed Muse. The trio quite blatantly emulates Queen’s epic operatic sound and occasionally peppers in guitar solos that even Brian May could be tricked into thinking he played.  If the Queen mix-up doesn’t have Muse fans in a tizzy, the Timbaland-esque drum track on “Undisclosed Desires”(clearly a filler track) will be sure to cause uproar.  The tracks on the album don’t seem to form the same cohesiveness that Muse’s past albums achieved, leaving the listener in a synth-induced state of confusion.

But aside from all previously mentioned and some sub-par cliché lyrical work, this is not a crash and burn album.  Matthew Bellamy flaunts his musical prowess with the intricate three-part rock symphony, “Exogenesis”, and a beautifully executed rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9 no. 2 at the end of “United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)”, a track that fuses electronic, alternative and classical musical styles into one epic menagerie of sounds.  Yes, Muse traded some of their “Muse”icallity to attempt some musicality and yes, it’s going to infuriate the diehards (not to worry, people, you’ll find solace in the heavy riffs of “Unnatural Selection” and “MK Ultra”), but so what if Muse sounds a bit less like themselves and a bit more like they have just come stumbling out of an 80’s arena? Instead of seeing this album as a digression, we should see it as a nod to a time where we didn’t have to dig through old record boxes or click for days on “Purevolume” to find good music. We can only reminisce about the days where good music would fly out of your car radio, laden in glittery star patterned jumpsuits, and slap you with a melody that put you on your knees begging for more.  Muse may very well be hinting at that here in an attempt to revive the musical ingenuity and passion from an era long gone.  Perhaps Bellamy longs for the mainstream resurgence of grandiose Rock n’ Roll just as many musicians do.

The album blurs the boundaries of contemporary music and introduces a blend of collaborative musical styles to the listeners, but ultimately The Resistance is a high-low album – a valley for every couple peaks.  And there’s just no room for troughs on an album that attempts to transcend space.  Failure is so much easier when aspirations are high, and, to their credit, Muse always works with soaring aspirations.  And although many expecting fans may remove their earphones feeling slightly disappointed, Freddie Mercury is listening out there somewhere, failing to hold back a grin, or maybe rolling in his grave, or quite possibly both.