“The Wow! Signal” tHE LATEST RELEASE FROM muse
This album is based on the story of The Wow! Signal in August 1977 where a 72 second radio signal was detected in space near Sagittarius by Ohio State University’s Big Ear Telescope and only happened once and was so unexpected that it was decided it was caused by aliens. This lead to the astronomer, Jerry Ehman writing just one word on his notes, “WOW!”. The cover art represents this radio wave being sent through space with what has been named by fans as a “space croissant”.
The record can also be compared to that story by how unexpected and big all the tracks sound that helps immerse their listeners into the sci-fi universe. For example, the opener “The Dark Forest” starts the album off with a cinematic futuristic theme that bursts open with a grand orchestra and chanting that is very reminiscent to Ghost’s “Year Zero”. The build up into the (super)massive ending of this track showed just how much effort went into perfecting this album to take listeners on a journey through space and the song can also be compared to “Knights of Cydonia” that features the same sort of drum beat.
Every track sounds different to each other such as “Nightshift Superstar” bringing a catchy chorus and groovy baseline compared to the next track which is a ballad called “Shimmering Scars” and then later on “Hexagons” making you feel like you’re in space with the massive sounding drums and guitar riffs that feel like it was made to be in a sci-fi film. Heavier tracks such as “Cryogen”, which sounds a lot like an updated version of the Plug In Baby riff but backwards, “The Sickness In You And I” and lead single “Unravelling” brings a harsher sound to the album with sounds that perfectly suits the type of venues that the 2x Grammy award winners play.
“Hush” is a collaboration with Ellie Goulding that sounds like a heavier “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish which many assumed at first would be a pop ballad type song but proved everyone wrong by coming out swinging with a heavy sounding 8 string guitar turning this into one of my unexpected favourites from the album. “Be With You” also brings in similar but slower guitar riffs that doesn’t connect with me as much as the riffs did on “Hush” and to me is the weakest song on the album even though it is still an amazing song. “Space Debris” ends the album on a sombre note about love drifting away which Matt Bellamy has said is a very personal one for him after his split with Elle Evans that made him face an unknown he hasn’t had for many years so it made Bellamy reflect back on the band’s early sound for this album.
After listening to the album it brings me even more confidence that the space rock icons will definitely be going strong for many more years to come and I am looking forward to seeing what’s next from them! Their highly anticipated tour for the album starts with a smaller scale amphitheatre US tour next week and then a European arena tour from November to December that will feature their usual epic production that Muse fans always expect from them. There is also more legs of the tour rumoured for next year including a UK and European stadium leg of the tour to continue to promote the new album.
