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In the Post #60: Muse

I reckon it must be pretty nice to be a best-selling author like Stephenie Meyer. (In case you’ve been living under a rock, Meyer is the American author of that super-popular vampire romance series directed at teens that has turned into a uber money-making franchise with the books being spun off into equally huge popular films.) The whole vampire romance genre just goes over my head, but the one thing that I do appreciate from all of this merchandising is that much care has been taken in choosing what songs will go on the films’s soundtrack albums.

But going back to why it must be nice to be a best-selling author (besides being filthy rich): you have power. For example, the strength of the soundtracks is no doubt due to Meyer herself, who is a self-professed Muse fanatic. The Devon band contributed songs to the first two soundtrack albums (‘Supermassive Black Hole’ from 2006’s ‘Black Holes and Revelations’, and then the New Moon remix of ‘I Belong to You’, the original appearing on 2008’s ‘The Resistance’). It was reported back in March by drummer Dom Howard that the band would not be appearing on the soundtrack for ‘Eclipse’, the third film in the series, because “it’s the people in the movie business, completely outside of the writers and the creative types, the non-creative types I suppose are the people who are quite hard to deal with in Hollywood, so it didn’t work out“.

Not sure what happened between now and then but obviously some kind of agreement was made, as the lead single from the ‘Eclipse’ soundtrack was played as Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record in the World on Monday 17 May. Called ‘Neutron Star Collison (Love is Forever)’, it’s stirred some of the most passionate debate on the net as of late. Singer/songwriter Matt Bellamy told Gigwise that the song “kind of like a cheesy love sentiment”, which sounds to be a bit cynical. Possibly? I’d love to sit down with the man sometime and talk about what he really thinks of the ‘Twilight’ franchise.

My first impression? It sounds like an extension of the bombastic, Queen / Freddie Mercury-esque sound the band was already leaning towards in ‘The Resistance’. It’s definitely got a more commercial, middle of the road sound than Muse’s earlier releases. I like the piano interlude similar to the one in ‘United States of Eurasia’. Bellamy’s voice sounds measured, mature – a definite plus. But the lyrics are, as Bellamy stated, incredibly cheesy. Unfortunately, to some of the more devoted Muse fans, this track is going to sound like complete heresy, a complete contradiction to the stadium rock image Muse has carefully cultivated and held for a long time. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

If you live in the UK, you can listen to the song on Zane Lowe’s blog here.