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9.0
46839
9.0 |
Independent on Sunday
If there's one perennial reason to treasure Muse, it's their fearlessness in the face of scale. No band is as unafraid of their own magnificence
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8.0
46802
8.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Muse’s rather absurd spaceship may be welded together from bits of other acts – but it still flies
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8.0
46851
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
It is as big, explosive and gloriously silly as rock music has ever been
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8.0
46660
8.0 |
Q
We have come to expect dizzy excess from Muse, The real surprises come when they sound relaxed, even delicate. Print edition only
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8.0
46661
8.0 |
Mojo
If you like your rock symphonic and your vocals histrionic, The 2nd Law delivers. Print edition only
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8.0
46662
8.0 |
Uncut
Muse deserve credit for scaling ever higher peaks of baroque'n'roll excess. Print edition only
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8.0
46683
8.0 |
NME
What Muse have done is re-established themselves as a respected British institution by being fun
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8.0
46717
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
The 2nd Law is seriously fun. Seriously!
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8.0
46760
8.0 |
The Guardian
No one goes to see a blockbuster for its profundity and deep characterisation. They go for the stunts and the special effects, both of which The 2nd Law delivers
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8.0
46938
8.0 |
The Scotsman
This feels like it could be the next logical step for Muse. But when has logic ever been their muse?
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8.0
47000
8.0 |
The Fly
The scale is such that you have to stand back in a kind of addled awe. Much in the same way that you might regard a 75ft-high luminous pink pissing ? amingo water feature
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8.0
47448
8.0 |
Tone Deaf
Eclectic, daring, and yes, occasionally exhausting to the ear – The 2nd Law may well be Muse’s most eccentric set yet
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7.0
46948
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
Their most expansive and varied yet
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7.0
46658
7.0 |
Clash
Flamboyant late-’80s/early-’90s dance-rock influence and sombre fairy-tale pop dictate proceedings
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7.0
46803
7.0 |
BBC
The array of musical styles on show across The 2nd Law means that, like many of this band’s past albums, it doesn’t entirely coalesce into a seamless collection of songs
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6.8
47150
6.8 |
The AU Review
The 2nd Law has many, many flaws which will probably disappoint long-time Muse fans, but will probably win them a wagon-load of new ones
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6.0
47140
6.0 |
No Ripcord
The 2nd Law is a love-it-or-hate-it record. It contains some of the best songs Muse has done in recent memory, but also the worst
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6.0
47034
6.0 |
State
A remarkably different album to anything they have ever created
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6.0
47539
6.0 |
Under The Radar
There are six different albums on The 2nd Law-and while Muse should have just picked one and ran with it, the real brilliance of The 2nd Law is the sum of its parts
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6.0
47275
6.0 |
God Is In The TV
The two tracks in the extended version (Isolated system and Unsustainable) are sublime, beautiful and scary at the same time
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6.0
46843
6.0 |
The Observer
Bellamy is not blind to the contradictions of his band's attempts continually to ramp the ludicrousness up to 11; endless growth is, of course, unsustainable. But for now they remain pretty comfortable with the idea of obscene over-inflation. So should we
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6.0
46898
6.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
There are times where Muse leaves the Queen-dom to invade U2's territory, with Bellamy’s vocals adopting the desperate shakiness of a spiritual leader
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6.0
46792
6.0 |
Evening Standard
They rose by being more extreme and more brave than the herd: coasting and reining themselves in doesn’t suit Muse
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6.0
46758
6.0 |
The Irish Times
Overall, The 2nd Law feels like an incoherent vortex of ideas, but at least they have the spaceballs to be totally ridiculous on a grand scale
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5.8
47202
5.8 |
A.V. Club
The musical equivalent of a massive-budget action film: men blowing shit up just because they can, a forced romantic subplot, and above all, the ego required to believe one band can save the world
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5.5
46934
5.5 |
Pitchfork
Not any fun at all
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5.0
46831
5.0 |
musicOMH
They may have a formidable and well-deserved live reputation, but Muse need a radical re-think - a producer or any other dissenting voice would be a start - or those crowds might stop coming at all
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4.0
46865
4.0 |
The Digital Fix
Once again the band lack for any sort of consistency in both sound and quality, leaving this to be "just another Muse album", and not a particularly good one at that
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4.0
46871
4.0 |
PopMatters
The 2nd Law certainly isn’t the career bomb that many might worry it to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s not any less of a red flag
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4.0
47038
4.0 |
Spin
Muse are (and forever may be) too devoted to a micro-managed version of Thom Yorke's dystopian despair
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3.0
46659
3.0 |
The Quietus
It's a frankly bewildering place, one where incongruous touchstones are flung at the listener thick and fast
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0.1
46916
0.1 |
Beats Per Minute
See full review
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