Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Arguably there has never been a time in British history when the Will Of The People has been more under threat, where every gain made, every step taken forward in the name of progress of equality and rights has been not slowly or gradually removed, but systematically and swiftly desecrated, a bonfire of the backbone, a funeral pyre of the resolve which now poses the risk of inflaming the natural ambivalence handed down by generations into a national conflict; and they are not just to blame, but the will of the people is as well…for we have allowed this to happen.
There are albums that discus the current event of the time with panache and subtly, drawn up in such a way that the music disguises the contempt the musician or the band has for the situation, perhaps with no greater effect than Marvin Gaye’s sensational album What’s Going On, and then there are those that dispense with subtly and go straight for the jugular, and it is to those that the will of the people might seek salvation.
Subtly is one thing, sheer naked aggression is a right when the world around you is drowning in a cesspit created by others just because they hate the average person’s ability to reach out beyond what the master’s decree is their lot, and for Muse, that anger, that wrath of what has happened around the world in the last few years since their previous recording, and how it is the Will Of The People that needs to prevail as a consensus, as a committed agreement to make the world, in the words of Muse, less fucked.
An album chock full of singles, but ones that hold a common theme, and in tracks such as Liberation, Won’t Stand Down, the excellent You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween, Kill Or Be Killed, Euphoria, We Are Fucking Fucked, and the extreme album opener and album title track, Will Of The People, Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard, and Chris Wolstenholme provide a standard, the means in which like many of their previous crowd pleasers and intricate dialogues, the beauty of performance lays in anger, in unrelenting and provoking performance, and yet all the time sounding as blessed as a bird realising it can fly.
Such is the blistering pace of the album that its time on the turntable or on the cd feels short, and yet it is deep, it throws caution to the wind, and allows the listener to once more understand that Muse are one of the finest bands around.
Captivating and secure in its delivery, Muse’s Will Of The People is an expression of damnation against government, control, and the fear that the weakest links in society, those who seek to subjugate, are getting away with murder.
Ian D. Hall