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Muse<\/strong>\u2019s new album, their 10th studio release, The Wow! Signal, lands this week, and we\u2019ve been fortunate to receive an early listen. An unusual, narrow radio signal captured by the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University on 15 August, 1977, inspired the album\u2019s title. The 72-second signal (the longest window of recording available to Big Ear) was unusually strong, and uncharacteristically loud in contrast to the surrounding noise. It was intriguing, as it sat at or very near the frequency of neutral hydrogen, seemingly of extraterrestrial origin.\u00a0 Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman observed the anomaly when reviewing data and wrote \u201cwow!\u201d beside it on the computer printout, which led to the common usage of \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019.<\/p>\n This, to my knowledge, marks the first time a Muse studio album has included an outside co-writing credit.\u00a0 Dan Lancaster<\/strong>, who plays guitars, keyboards, and vocals, is the touring band\u2019s unofficial fourth member. He\u2019s also noted for his involvement with Blink-182<\/strong> and Bring Me The Horizon<\/strong>, earning three Grammy nominations for his work with them.\u00a0 He\u2019s a successful producer, songwriter, and artist in production and mixing.\u00a0 This album\u2019s co-writing and co-production are part of his expanded partnership with Muse.<\/p>\n It feels like this album has been coming for a long time now, and with five singles already released, it\u2019s been something of a musical jigsaw puzzle as we\u2019ve tried to ascertain how the concept would come together. I tried a couple of different ways to form this review, but ultimately decided on a quick track-by-track summary, so let\u2019s get into it:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dark Forest\u201d is the opening track and, lyrically, it references the Dark Forest theory, which suggests that broadcasting signals into space is an invitation for obliteration by another civilisation. The Dark Forest theory is one of the proposed explanations of the Fermi Paradox, which lies in the contrast between the belief that extraterrestrial life must exist and the overwhelming lack of evidence for it. The song kicks off with a quick Doppler-effect transiting spaceship, before it bursts into a prog-rock Arabian Nights percussive gallop with swirling synthesiser. Halfway through we are hit head-on with harmonies in Latin that fall away briefly before returning, incorporated into the first intense blast of the album. I\u2019m pretty rusty with my Latin these days, but I think I picked up \u2018\u2019sanctus dominus deus\u2019 (Holy Lord God), and \u2018Altissimus Machina\u2019 (Highest machine), along with a few other snippets. I look forward to discovering the full text to better understand it. This track well and truly lays the foundation for what follows.<\/p>\n \u201cNightshift Superstar\u201d, the most recent single, is the Chris Wolstenholme<\/strong> bass spectacular that I reviewed previously. It\u2019s a tremendously catchy, funk-filled intergalactic upbeat track, and I\u2019ve found myself repeatedly humming\/singing this tune at all hours and locations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cShimmering Scars\u201d is the most beautiful and magical track on the album. Beginning with a delicate piano line, this is breathtakingly emotional, and has made me cry every time I\u2019ve listened. My opinion, with respect, is that Matt Bellamy<\/strong> is always at his best when the music is rooted in angst and heartbreak, and this song is filled with despair, woven atop a combination of pipe organ, ethereal harmonies, and a powerful rhythm section. Anyone who has suffered through the agony of a failed relationship will feel this one. Sublime.<\/p>\n \u201cCryogen\u201d, released a couple of months ago and also recently reviewed, has been the standout single to date. It was hearing this song for the first time that made me realise something special was coming.<\/p>\n \u201cBe With You\u201d is the track that took me a bit of time to form a positive relationship with, yet has come to be one of my favourites on the album. I think it won me over when I heard it in context of the album overall and the way it just\u2026works, I guess. The pipe organ returns in a more prominent form before the song takes a techno turn and we\u2019re off again, shooting through the Universe courtesy of Muse in full bombastic flight.<\/p>\n \u201cHexagons\u201d references, I believe, the hexagonal storm on Saturn, where competing atmospheric air flows have manipulated the jet stream into a geometrically perfect, endless storm system at the planet\u2019s northern pole. An extended, building guitar riff surrounds you before it eases back momentarily with breathy Bellamy vocals, but only just long enough to prepare your ears for an onslaught of gorgeous, layered harmonies and another synth-supported guitar riff. The power of Dominic Howard<\/strong>\u2019s drums in this is something to behold, too.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sickness in You & I\u201d is my favourite track on The Wow! Signal. When I first heard it I actually shouted out loud (to myself, no less) \u201cOh Mother of All Fuckities!\u201d. The pulse through it is simultaneously dance-able and menacing, and there\u2019s an immensity to the instrumentation that makes my chest ache. Just when you think you\u2019ve got a handle on it all, in comes metal shredding and double-kick drums, and it\u2019s a glorious maelstrom of Muse insanity. The shifting-tempo ping-ponging ending is a genius segue into the next track, too.<\/p>\n \u201cUnravelling\u201d, the first single which was released exactly one year ago, was the first whiff that \u201cold Muse\u201d had returned from the abyss, with its meaty bass and guitar riffs and those massive drums.<\/p>\n \u201cHush\u201d is the collab between Muse and featured artist, Ellie Goulding<\/strong>. There\u2019s one apparently derivative aspect to this song, being Billie Eilish<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Bad Guy\u2019, which came to mind when I first heard it, and I also thought of Imagine Dragons<\/strong>\u2019 \u2018Sharks\u2019 at times. This is not a criticism. The way the song has been constructed, particularly with the musical conversation between Goulding and Bellamy, is a knockout. Collaborations sometimes make me nervous, to be honest, but I bloody love this.<\/p>\n \u201cSpace Debris\u201d is the space rock waltz which farewells the album. An ode to lost love and the emotional debris of a broken relationship, it\u2019s intimate yet soaring, leaving you feeling like you\u2019re adrift in the vastness of the Universe, and a fitting end to an absolutely massive, epic album.<\/p>\n This is the soundtrack for the once-fanciful Orwellian dystopia in which we now reside. It\u2019s rich with melodic, cell-shifting bass lines that pull no punches, and drums that you can feel from the soles of your feet, all sonically beating you about the ears and making your heart palpitate. Matt Bellamy\u2019s vocals are brilliant, perfectly aligned with angelic and urgent harmonies throughout. The crispness of the instruments, the harmony layers, the concept, the immensity\u2026fucking amazing. It\u2019s War of the Worlds mixed with all the best of Muse, then put into a blender and blasted into orbit.<\/p>\n This is the Muse album I\u2019ve waited years to hear.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/full-star.png\")
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