The other day, I tried a little experiment. I had just listened to the full version of a new track Muse posted online, complete with music video (I'm guessing that passes as a "single" these days, for what that's worth). The song was called 'Be With You', a taster of the band's upcoming 10th album and, being a long-term fan of all things Muse-y, I naturally wanted to give it a listen.
Humour me in backing up slightly and to give some background; I've not been totally blown away by Muse since...ooh, 2015. 'Drones' was the last album I really "enjoyed", as in it made me FEEL something when I listened to it. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for a concept album, maybe its because the really, really great songs on that record outweighed the chaff, and I can live with the less-than-stellar stuff. 2018 brought the retro-themed Matrix/Tron mash-up that was 'Simulation Theory' (which was, you know, OK) before the massive drop-off that was 2022's 'Will of the People', a record I detested so much I instigated an unofficial self-imposed ban on seeing the band live in concert, and succeeded in eradicating from my memory. Even now, four years on, I refuse to acknowledge 'Will of the People' exists (apart from the lead single 'Won't Stand Down' which, weirdly, was one of the band's strongest tracks for about ten years). I don't think I've ever been so disappointed with an album release (apart from when Oasis pissed out 'Standing on the Shoulder of Giants' in 2000, and I realised they were pretty much done in terms of creativity).
Back to the new Muse track, then. How was it for all you Muse fans out there? There's been a lot of positive reviews of it, but unfortunately, mine is not one of them. Is it as bad as the 'Will of the People' output? Hard to say. It's definitely propped up by it on a ranking list, with 'WOTP' at rock bottom, but 'Be With You' will forever languish down in the decaying depths of the basement of Muse's recorded material. It is not a grower. In fact, I sincerely hope it grows wings and fucks off, such is the level of Coldplay-lite, stadium-rock pomp and saccharine emotion involved. It's a song that makes me feel Muse are taking the piss out of their fans, seeing how bad a track they can release that will still be hoovered up by gurning, slavering twats who mosh along regardless. It's a song not written from the heart, but written to look good as 50,000 bell-ends with light-up wristbands go "oooh!" as streamers fire off fucking glitter and confetti. My wife said that I was "never going to like it", and that I'd "already decided before I'd heard it", which isn't FULLY true. I did go in with an open mind, wanting desperately to love it, but due to being burned in the past, I am now very wary when bands release new material. I've found it to be a useful coping mechanism. And the song was shit, anyway.
I voiced this opinion - not the most popular of all time - on various Muse Facebook groups to see what reaction I got. I was braced for the inevitable rabid fan-boys and girls, the roaring sycophants who rush to fill the comments sections on videos of new songs with teary-eyed emojis and fire symbols. Who flock to declare whatever new material is THE BESTEST SONG THEY'VE EVER DONE OMG OMG I'M HYPERVENTILATING!!!! Inevitably, I was pigeon-holed as a "clown" by one raging clod who probably has knickers with Matt Bellamy's face on at home. But curiously, there were several people - long-term Muse fans like me - who admitted that, yes, this was a new low for them. Comments like "at this point they are just hating on the fans", "Muse have no place doing pop bollocks like this" and the universal "meh".
What I'm trying to get at is I'm delighted there finally seems to be a realisation in a lot of people that a band (and it's not just Muse who are guilty of this, far from it) can and frequently do have a logical end period, a shelf-life, a period where they've said everything they need to say and have sung everything they need to sing. Obviously there are countless bands who have fallen out of fashion, who are regarded as products of their time and have been quite rightly forgotten by the majority of people and had the sense to split up. But its sad when a band you admired, revered, idolised etc. fall flat and are just no longer able to deliver the goods as they once did. They become that race-horse who goes lame, that porn-star who can no longer get it up, the bread going curly at the edges.
As I say, Muse aren't the only ones. My patience has been tested by Suede as well in the past few years, beginning with the cack that was dished out on their 2022 album 'Autofiction', before they decided to throw the towel in completely with the turgid, phoned-in 'Antidepressants' from last year. A record so tepid it was almost like an AI chat-bot wrote eleven songs in the style of Suede and the band thought "yeah, that'll do". I have now vowed to stop listening to anything Suede decide to release from here on in; I just don't have time or the desire for it. I'll always love Brett Anderson's arse wiggles and boundless energy on stage, but for the love of God someone please stop them writing new stuff. It's just awful. Whereas there were at least a few Muse fans ready to accept that they are no longer the rock titans they once were (or, as I phrased it "disappeared up their own Supermassive Black Holes"), Suede fans are a completely different kettle of insane, cult-like, threatening mentalists - The Insatiable Ones Facebook group in particular. It's ironic that Suede debuted a new song recently entitled 'Tribe', when the hideous individuals in The Insatiable Ones are the first to castigate, accuse, banish and disassociate with ANYONE who dares offer even the slightest criticism of the band or their beloved Brett. It's their way or instant dismissal for you, sunshine. It must be like being friends with Francis Begbie from 'Trainspottng' - it's all capers and frolics until you disagree with them, then you get the sharp end of a broken pool cue up your arse and find yourself pissing blood from a damn good shoe-ing.
The issue of tribalism also reared its head in the Muse fan groups, where one person said something along the lines of: "true fans appreciate all eras of a band; if you only like albums from their past, you are just a fan of their history." Quite a lofty claim, and to be fair the prick WAS shot down in flames by others who said how dare they lord it over everyone else and tell us what constitutes a real fan. Are 'real fans' also the ones who follow a band doggedly on tour, spunking thousands of quid on VIP tickets, travel and hotels seeing the same show over and over again just to get some Instagram content? What about those of us for whom concerts are a luxury? For whom a lavish, £150 collector's edition vinyl box-set of a band's new album is an insane amount of cash? Are their reactions not valid when they maybe feel the end product has fallen short? It makes my blood boil, it really does.
Back in the late 90s, I was a huge fan of the band Mansun (and still am!), but never got to see them live in their hey-day (mainly because none of my mates liked them, and I didn't want to go to a gig by myself). Since Mansun's acrimonious split in the 2000s, vocalist Paul Draper has carved out a solo career for himself, whereas the rest of his former bandmates have seemingly retired from the music business. As well as two well-received solo albums of original material, Draper has also become custodian of the Mansun back catalogue, which has been pillaged nearly as often as Suede's has in an attempt to reap the big nostalgia bucks. After numerous anniversary reissues, Record Store Day EP releases and a career-spanning Mansun box-set, Draper has unfortunately fallen into the trap of diminishing returns offered by his former band. As well as tours performing Mansun's 'Attack of the Grey Lantern' and 'Six' albums in full, he has also seen fit to bombard us with an utterly inessential reimagining (shudder...) of several Mansun songs in the form of 'Mansun Retold', an album nobody asked for and nobody really wanted (apart from the sub-species of fan for whom these people can do no wrong - they truly do walk amongst us) once they realised how shite it was. Again, I ventured into the world of social media fan groups to see what the consensus was when I offered that it perhaps wasn't especially good and didn't they think it was better being honest about it?
The responses were pretty similar to Muse fans, I have to say. 75% was abuse over the fact my own feelings did not match the "OMG THIS IS AMAZING" camp, and probably 25% grudgingly agreeing with me, and the fact they've massively gone off Paul Draper in recent years. Mansun's Only Love Song, a fan-group I had been part of for some time, was the sounding board for my less-than-glowing review of 'Mansun Retold' (which also featured on this very site), sparking a mini-meltdown amongst several spirited Draper supporters, such is their ardour for a man who just can't let his former life go. I even posted my image of my shattered 'Mansun Retold' LP, smashed to pieces with a rolling pin in protest after a few listens (and realising that I was never going to soil my turntable with this dross ever again). That didn't go down especially well, and within five minutes of posting my passionate plea for Draper to "do better" - despite one poster praising me for such actions - my own individual point-of-view was swiftly removed, and I was banned from the group.
In a way, I get why they did this. Why would they have a post on the group bad-mouthing the songwriting genius of this esteemed musical figure? It's damaging the image, maaaan, bumming everyone out. Conversely, you might say my right to an opinion was being censored, edited, removed from existence and silenced. A bit like in '1984'. That's a bit heavy; I mean I'm not protesting for Palestine or laying my life on the line for a worthy cause, I was merely voicing how displeased and disappointed I was at one of my musical...is "heroes" the right word...? (It's not, but you get what I mean) generally appearing to be a money-grabbing, crotchety old whinger who just trades off past glories.
To sum up, I just don't get this madness that fans are not allowed to be critical of a band they love. I grew up in Teignmouth, Devon - hometown of Muse - I was there for the release of their initial EPs, their gradual ascent to becoming one of the best live acts the UK has, showcasing how they'd evolved with each new album. A classmate at college practically forced us to listen to them every time we were in the sixth form common room in 1998-1999, and it felt in a way it was the law to like the band.
While I did get into them organically after an initial phase of not thinking they were anything special, there were lots of "hangers-on" who felt they had to be part of the ride. To sound cool by saying they were fans. Being from the same town as the band made me feel quite protective in a way; I was at a packed-out 2001 gig at Exeter University (probably breaking every single fire safety regulation going) and also at their 2007 sell-out Wembley Stadium concert, which - for me - is probably the zenith of their popularity before things began to go slightly awry. I always felt, each time an album came out, I was fiercely critical, really wanting it to be the best material, the greatest songs, they'd ever put out. I guess I just wanted them to continue having the success they'd earnt, and when they did - albeit with songs that didn't connect with me, or were a bit too "pop", or that I felt didn't represent their true talent - I would feel bitterly disappointed and saddened. I recall having "first listen" sessions with my mate Simon when new stuff came out, where we'd stick the CD on in his bedroom and rate the songs out of ten, before comparing notes. Our lists would rarely match. I preferred Muse's forays into prog, electronica and concepts; Simon appreciated the balls-out rock and heavier sounding tracks, with a fair few of the quieter, more acoustic songs. Definitely not "weird shit" with glitchy, processed drums and synthesiser arpeggios all over it.
Each to their own, and all that. In terms of commercial success, you have to keep doing what the public wants, which will naturally piss off the curmudgeonly middle-aged people like me. I hate it when bands repeatedly churn out the same old guff or pander to the lowest common denominator: it just smacks of 'here's a load of songs we've done the bare minimum with in order to get them released'. I love a band who evolve, who constantly surprise me with what they can do, without losing the engrained sound that initially attracted me. It's when a band is blind and/or deaf to the fact they're putting out material that, if B-sides still existed, wouldn't even grace the flipside of a 7" or 12" single, or be tucked away as the third or fourth track on a CD single. Bands who rattle off that old "we've progressed and matured as a band, and I this is our most personal album to date" shite, when in fact it's very hard to differentiate from anything else they've recorded.
Going back to Suede, I was elated when they announced around 15 years ago they'd reformed and would be giving things another go. When the 2018 album 'The Blue Hour' was released, I honestly felt it belonged on the same pedestal people put Suede's earlier albums like their debut, or 'Dog Man Star' and 'Coming Up' on. It was layered, atmospheric, cinematic and had substance, style and instances of really doing things they'd not tried before. Sadly, since then, they've been riding a tsunami of mediocrity, too scared to ditch the punctured lifeboat they now drift on, when someone really should have put them out of their misery and made them call it a day once more.
But then again, shouldn't it be the bands/artists themselves who realise the game is up? That they're creatively bankrupt, devoid of anything fresh to say? Sometimes, a "name" isn't enough to sustain the continued release of new material, which will ultimately just be disappointing and a downward trend on an already elongated discography (cough, cough, Paul McCartney, cough cough...).
So this is a call to all bands, singers, songwriters and artists: keep tabs on what you've got to say, and how you say it. If you're regurgitating the same old shit we've already heard from you, then maybe it's time to have the good grace to say: "You know what, guys? That's me done. My beliefs, messages and thoughts are out there. Do with them what you will, I'm retiring". I've had a lot of shitty comments along the lines of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" when I've written reviews of poor albums - FUCK THAT. Why should I NOT speak out if I believe a band aren't fulfilling their side of the bargain with a paying fan? This petty "you'll hurt their feelings, someone put a lot of work into that album" comment has to stop. In most cases these days, it's plain to see that there's been minimal effort involved, and that elephant in the room deserves to be pointed out. And shot.
It's time to take back control from the sycophants and "yes" wankers.
Hopefully their days are numbered.
by P.T. Muscutt