Context
In a way I like to compare Muse to Queen. When I say that I mean: Both change a lot from album to album. Muse is ever-changing and so “Simulation Theory” marks another kind of Muse, a more “synthwavy” band. They were already into electronic sounds, Muse is a space-rock band after all. But this time they embrace the hell out of it.
When you listen to Muse you gotta keep this in mind: It’s gonna be different than last time. A problem with most Muse fans I met is that they insist in wanting the “Old Muse” back, instead of just enjoying those early albums and be done with it. It’s fine if you don’t enjoy new stuff, but they don’t take away the old stuff. Sorry, I digress.
Back to the album. Inspired by the notorious 80’s Nostalgia, Muse decided to make an actual album again, instead of just releasing singles as they felt like making them. If I recall correctly, in an interview with Radio X, Dominic Howard stated that some of the inspiration to make an album came from the new Arctic Monkeys LP; so thank you Arctic Monkeys.
Rating Theme: Virtual Realities, man.
Simulation Theory: Intro Song
Yep it’s great as usual. If there’s one thing Muse will probably get right is the intro to their albums and “Algorithm” is no joke, fool. It’s practically Muse does synth-wave mixed with classic music. It has that “Wow” factor and the build up is ridiculously good.
Grade: 5/5 Simulations
Simulation Theory: Variation of Songs
So yeah, we covered “Algorithm”. It’s exactly what you would expect from an album with synths. In the same Radio X interview I mentioned earlier Matt Bellamy said the idea was to create this fight between the virtual and classic music. At least this song nailed that idea. This is a very epic feeling song.
Next we have “The Dark Side”. This one has synths to the bone, not as much as the opener, but almost everything is electronic. This track is what I would call an “Always Moving” song. It has this amazing pacing that makes up for it being very repetitive.
Next comes “Pressure”, the one that breaks the expectations. Man, this track is so danceable it’s crazy. The beat is just insanely catchy, real drums here, and the riff is pure rock and roll, baby. A legit rocking song in a very virtual album; a delight for rock fans.
And here comes the supreme variation and experimentation you’ve come to listen regarding Muse. “Propaganda” is the first WTF moment. This song has a robotic voice shouting the title repeatedly, funky rhythm like Prince, slide guitar and explosive build up to the final chorus. And then we get to…
“Break It To Me”. This is even crazier and more of that sweet WTF element. Some heavy funky bass and drums, peculiar vocals, some Bollywood melodies, theremin riff, distorted Tom Morello like guitar solo. I’ll tell you something, it doesn’t get much groovier than this from here on out.
This album has 11 tracks, so there’s no mid point.
Now “Something Human”. A truly chill track. It’s the definition of made for radio. It mixes electronic with acoustic, kinda like the slide guitars in “Propaganda”, but here it is more present. It has a fast paced beat and a lot of effects going on.
Talking about radio-friendly, here it is: “Thought Contagion”. This is what I call a “Chorus Song”, a track that is always building to the “WOWS”. Differently from the other songs, this one has the bass riff as the main focus. The build up to the solo is also great. The main difference of this song to the others is the arena vocals at the chorus, which is clearly made for participation of the crowd, hence the radio-friendly label it gets.
Hey, radio-friendly again. This track is very similar to the last two in the way it is easy to digest for a wide range of people. However “Get Up And Fight” is more formulaic and less complex. It’s pretty much: small verse, big chorus, poppy harmony; it even has clear as day auto-tune. Honestly it has way less synths as well.
It gets epic again with “Blockades”, a real drum song again and another example of a song that nails two made up traits of mine: Always Moving and Build Up Song. “Blockades” never stops and when it it’s getting repetitive, it doesn’t. The slow build up to the epic chorus begins, and it feels as epic as “Algorithm”. And oh boy, that solo is just great, specially cause of the build up it gets.
Back to radio-friendly with “Dig Down”. This one is all synths and “Second Act Explosion”, another music trope I just made up, roll with it. This one brings new things to the table in its soothing and relaxing synths and happy melody. After that it gets even more happy and real instruments are brought back to give the song that epic finale.
And for the finale we arrive at “The Void”, that mirrors “Algorithm” in its battle between electronic and classic music. However shits get dark for real here. “The Void” has orchestra to give it the epic treatment and some top-shelf synths in the mix. About half way trough the song it starts to explode, but it doesn’t. We go back to the Cosmic Pessimism piano melody and it ends with more amazing synths.
“Simulation Theory” is an album that has: Synth Driven tracks (Algorithm, The Dark Side, Dig Down), A rocking track (Pressure), fun radio-friendly (Thought Contagion, Something Human, Get Up And Fight) weird experimental shit (Propaganda, Break It To Me) and a slow piano driven song (The Void).
Grade: 4.2/5 Simulations
Simulation Theory: Closing Song
Yeah, “The Void” is some good shit and it ends everything rather pessimistically. For an album with many radio-friendly stuff, a heavy pessimist deep track like this is really fitting. The idea of Simulation Theory does bring that agony of existential proportion.
Grade: 5/5 Simulations
Simulation Theory: Hits & Deep Tracks
So this is a recent album, henceforth it hasn’t been tested by time yet. However, there has been critical reception and such.
Hits: “Thought Contagion”, “Pressure”.
Deep Tracks: “Algorithm”, “The Dark Side”, “Propaganda”, “Break It To Me”, “Something Human”, “Dig Down”, “The Void”, “Get Up And Fight”.
As far as I know “Pressure” is played a lot on radio and “Thought Contagion” is so damn popular on concerts. We can’t be sure about how these songs will stand without many years from now. So I’ll use my personal experience of facts regarding their popularity.
Regarding modern albums (Those that still haven’t reached 10 years or more of existence) I’ll give two ratings for Hits & Deep Tracks. The classic one, with personal knowledge about facts I know of the song’s popularity. The other being my personal idea of how they will stand the test of time.
So, my theory on Hits & Deep Tracks for the upcoming 10 years or more is:
Hits: “Pressure”
Deep Tracks: The rest.
I say this cause I know this song is the most catchy of the whole album by far and it gets so much radio plays, as far as I know. My opinion is that nowadays for a song to be remembered it has to have high radio exposure and such. Not like in the old days it wasn’t the same, but with the sheer amount of music being made today… it’s hard to stand out.
So I believe if they made a Muse Greatest Hits 10 years from now, “Pressure” will be the only song featured from this album
Grade: 3/5 Simulations
Theory Grade: 2.2/5 Simulations
Simulation Theory: Album Order
The Album Order: Where most albums sin. Simulation Theory is no exception. Apart from the “Algorithm” “The Dark Side” transition, “Propaganda” and “Break It To Me” transition and “Dig Down” and “The Void” transition, this album feels like it’s on shuffle to me. Part of having great Variation of Songs is the sin of your album probably feeling like a bad playlist. Similar to another Muse album that has this problem (The 2nd Law), “Simulation Theory” is for the most part incoherent and chaotic. I honestly don’t think there’s a way to organize these songs that’s so much better, so I’ll just leave it at: “Simulation Theory” is an album that feels incoherent for the most part and it doesn’t flow smoothly as an album with a great track order. Multiple songs feel like they could belong to another album easily. This order deserves slightly above average grade, at MAX.
Grade: 2.8/5 Simulations
Simulation Theory: 4/5
Now the grade with the Theory on Hits & Deep Tracks:
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