“Muse was never good” 

i got into this channel with the OG twenty one pilots stuff, way back when life was different (i was 15 or 16 then, life was fucked, 20 now and doing better), and always wanted you to delve into what was and still is my favourite album of all time, as your vessel video especially helped me appreciate it a lot more. years later, you finally did it, and it did not disappoint. i was the one who said 'i've been waiting for this for literal years' at the start of the stream, and i meant it. your videos were the ones that got 16 year old me into thinking critically about music, and learning to channel my love for music (something that was sparked by this album) through discussion and reviewing. you've literally changed my life, and seeing this stream years later in a much better place was honestly heartwarming and brought me to near tears. its stupid how much this single video means to me lmfao, and i shouldn't be getting emotional, but thank you brad.

"Loved everything about each track, it's a 3.2/10" -Brad

The "trapped on a space station that is simultaneously imploding and exploding, also my girlfriend left me for an alien" vibes of this album are impeccable.

As a huge Radiohead fan I have never once thought that Muse and Radiohead are copies of one another or sound the same.

Ayo he actually liked Screenager I always knew Brad was one of the good ones

I'm a Muse and Radiohead fan (Yes it is possible lol) and I've never understood the comparison, they are two completely bands and they need to be judged like a band not a copy or influence, i think that if people can't do that they can't even understand music at all.

I'm really glad you liked it Brad!

i’m so happy you put 0/10 as the score in the description so that we can point out the mfs that are all like “how did you give this a 0/10 wtf!!!!” even though you didn’t LMAO

Screenager is hella underrated. I love the creepy vibe of it. Also the percussion that uses actual BONES.

Imma just repeat myself, Map of the Problematique is the perfect song.

how to fall off completely was the best line in the album

you missed the best part of the album, in futurism when matt says "it's symmetry time", honestly peak songwriting

I now feel the only thing WOTP truly did right was making me appreciate their early work a lot more

WHAT, old muse is TRASH, new Muse is so good it convinced me to buy the new Ford F-150

As a Muse fan who actually enjoyed WOTP quite a bit, three things: 1. I love this band, but the community can be pretty bad sometimes. You like what you like, Muse isn't for everyone. I'm sorry people insulted you over that. 2. Glad you gave Origin of Symmetry another shot! It really is a fantastic album - the RemiXX is also great. It clears up some of that muddiness you mentioned. But I also sort of think that gives the original sort of a signature sound. Both stand for me. 3. I actually sort of agree with the idea of an album being fun *because* it doesn't take itself too seriously. For me, it doesn't really detract from the overall experience if it's incredibly over the top and a little bit goofy - that's literally a part of the experience in my opinion. It's like being 'in on the joke' as it were. It's the same reason I love Queen and Billy Joel, and even Radiohead has a tendency to be a little bit silly sometimes. Muse are definitely their own beast. Particularly their newer stuff. I really enjoyed the album, but somebody else disliking it doesn't invalidate that for me. People are just defensive to a fault.

OOS is in my top 10 favorite albums of all-time. i’m not big on any other Muse project, maybe Absolution, but OOS is just some of the hardest-hitting alt rock i’ve ever heard. it’s so much fucking fun, it’s got the same vibe as Songs For the Deaf. yeah, i said it. 9/10. edit: someone also said “Radiohead Gravity Falls” but they should know that Gravity Falls sampled NEW BORN for their theme song.

My conspiracy theory as to how Muse went from this album to WOTP is that they wanted to escape the incessant Radiohead comparisons. I read in an interview years ago (I believe during the release of either The Resistance or The 2nd Law?) where Matt said the reception to Knights of Cydonia allowed to band to stop taking themselves so seriously. Which is fine and all, but to exponentially double down with each succeeding album? I just can't help but feel the shift from Absolution to Black Holes and Revelations to The Resistance is far too sudden to be a coincidence. Anyway, Muse and Radiohead are nothing alike other than they both started off as britpop bands with singers that took cues from Jeff Buckley's vocal style. But as a metalhead I always gravitated to Muse more because, for me, no other band was really combining heavy riffs (for "radio rock" anyway) with the ambition and complexity of prog/space rock without disappearing up its own arse (I'm looking at you Tool). Origin of Symmetry was especially a game changer for me in that regard - it's mindblowing how huge the album sounds despite Muse being a 3 man band. Maybe Fantastic Planet, Downward is Heavenward, Jupiter, and In Absentia are albums that come close to scratching the same itch but they're very different albums doing very different things. I truly think Origin of Symmetry is one of a kind masterpiece that will never be replicated.

I also feel like saying Muse is “dramatic” as a negative is so….strange. What if I like the drama? What if I like that it sounds like the world is always ending for Matt Bellamy? If you only like low-energy or very domestic music, that’s super cool but I don’t think something is inherently bad because it’s grand?

Glad you enjoyed this. They had a great run in the 2000s with Origin Of Symmetry (2001), Absolution (2004) and Black Holes and Revelations (2006), so I would say that these are the albums that are really worth checking out even if you’re not a fan of this sound and aesthetic. The debut is a bit rough because they were still looking to find their sound, Resistance is more of a symphonic, queen inspired vibe with some good songs, but that’s when they started to write this unspecific political lyrics in almost every song and it started to get worse after this album. The other albums have good moments too, but these three from the 2000s are amazingly on point with every song slapping hard

I've found that that's the case with most Muse albums is that you listen to it for the first time and its kind of meh, but you listen to it one or two more times and it REALLY grows on you A LOT. Glad you liked this album! You should listen to Absolution and Black holes and revelations, those are their two best albums in my opinion.

It's been my favourite album for years, it's pure perfection for me. The chaos, the space sounds, the piano arpeggios, the harsh guitar, the solos, his vocals... It never stops giving me goosebumps.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand TOOL. The songwriting is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of music theory most of the songs will go over a typical listener's head. There's also Maynard's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of this music, to realise that they're not just entertaining they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike TOOL truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Maynard's existential catchphrase "God Damn, Shi̸t the Bed," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Danny Carey's genius wit unfolds itself in their headphones. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂 And yes, by the way, i DO have a TOOL tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.

being this honest about appreciating art is actually rare today and that's why we follow you brad

Muse's problem now is they're trying to get songs in the charts, and also writing songs that will go over well live, as that is their usp now, it doesn't work on albums, but they slap live

People must've kept being triggered every time Brad said "I love these songs. This album is a 6/10." 🤣

I have seen both this video and the other review of the new Muse album, if I may I suggest you take a look at their 2007 Live in Wembley, because that is the essence of Muse, which is their live concerts. Following your question of "what happened from this album on", they simply wanted to become a stadium band and this forced them to have to expand their repertoire, because as much as I love a track like Micro Cuts or Screenager too, it is certain that it is not the kind of music that alone can fill a 70,000-person stadium. And we're not talking about filling venues like that for 2 dates a year, Muse have done exhausting tours (2009-10, for example, 145 dates on the Resistance Tour) with many venues over 50,000 spectators. Continuing to compare them to Radiohead is really meaningless, their approach is completely the opposite, Radiohead have a much more intimate and introverted approach, Muse are theatrical and grandiose, nothing could be more different. I like both and I'm not thinking who's the best, they have CLEARLY different intentions in their respective music production. I'm not saying that Muse are a perfect band, but in the end what matters for a musician is knowing how to perform live and they have become phenomenal in this, who says they have become more mainstream should ask themselves: compared to whom? Because it is obvious that they are more mainstream than bands playing in 5,000-seat venues, among current and contemporary big stadium bands there are very few that put on a more rock show than Muse.

This was such a fun video to watch from start to finish! I have really enjoyed watching your videos lately, keep doing what you do! Also definitely listen to absolution would love to see your take on it :P

14:58 That's the face we all had on our first listen when you realise the piano riff blends so well with the guitars

Thank you for re-reviewing this album! My respect for you has gone up so much for being open to listening again.

Actually a very fair point that you hold Muse to a higher standard. While I still love Muse and enjoy their new album, I do admit that they’ve succumbed a bit much to their cheesy, on-the-nose, over-the-top nature over the last several years. But, if you listen to them in the context that their songs are written to be performed in fat stadiums and get crowds going, then not such a big deal.

Chris Martin listens to crazy man singing about conspiracy theories and he surprisingly likes it

I’ve been waiting for this video for years, thank you Brad :) This video is literal perfection 🙃

3 songs in and this is already better than the entire other album, the sound is actually interesting and well-produced, and the lyrics are more meaningful than anything on Will of the People. I am very happy to have my view of Muse changed so quickly and actually discover some good music to listen to.

What I think a lot of people overlook is that Muse, at times, can be more akin to MCR than Radiohead. I know, sounds dumb, but if you listen to their earlier discog (especially this album) you can really hear Parade-era MCR in their songwriting.

This is my favourite Muse album (and also the first album I ever bought). But the mixing was always something I had an issue with. Then you get to the XX remix version, especially that version of Space Dementia which honestly puts it as one of the best songs Muse have ever done. The fucking strings man, the fucking strings. Also this album is a mixture of Ok Computer and Kid A and I will not elaborate further

Good video! The score in the description is a cherry on top

I really appreciate how much production value there is in these streams alone, watching this makes me forget that I'm watching an unedited stream

Damn you ALREADY got this video out, nice.

Muse is one of my favourite bands (although I am extremly disapointed by the last two albums) and until now I never knew how much people hated them. I mean... New Born cringe???? Really??? I understand if it isn't your cup of tea for whatever reason, but I don't understand how you can deny that it's good music.

Brad the kind of guy to pause their best song before amd during the chorus

I loved all the jokes you made through this haha and that you did end up liking it. The new muse stuff is super polarizing for fans and non fans so I get your hate for the new album even though I personally didn’t mind it. Keep doing you brad

There was something special about early Muse. They did foreboding and sinister in a really compelling way. Then they seemed to start taking the piss, and that ruined their newer albums for me. But after watching a lot of interviews, it becomes pretty obvious that they were always taking the piss, even here. Take Megalomania: the joke is that it’s a very anti-religious song, but it’s recorded on a church organ, and they gave fake lyrics to the priest so he would give them approval to use the organ. Screenager was recorded with animal bones, shopping bags and bubble wrap. Plug In Baby is about a sex toy, and Space Dementia is about a microcomputer. As for Feeling Good, their Radio 3 performance is a rare moment where they give the joke away. It’s a very subtle, surrealist kind of humour, and definitely darker in their earlier material, but everything they do is drenched in it.

Brad just gonna say u got me thru a really tough day. ❤

Hey Brad, fun fact: my uncle is best friends with Muse, went to school with them, still goes to house parties with them. Ive met the band through him briefly before (lovely guys btw) and will probably get the chance to meet them again in the next few months. What do you want me to say to them on your behalf? Also I'm really glad you like Origin of Symmetry, I still like this album a lot.

I'm actually so happy to see this because I'm such a big muse fan and was thinking about queueing old muse on a paid stream. Now I don't have to thanks for saving me money

Not that I need you to love everything I love, but it does put a smile on my face to see you react positively to one of my absolute favorite albums of all time

Hey brad, love your videos. If you ever make another “best songs ever” video I recommend you check out dust in the wind by Kansas, this song is nothing short of a masterpiece

To answer the question posed at 19:04, two decades worth of strain on the vocal cords is primarily what happened.

Amazing review bradley, as a muse fan I couldn't be happier. I'm feeling a strong 3 on this video

Love this video!! Thanks Brad!

I nearly had to throw hands in the stream where you were listening to the newest Muse album and you said that they’ve never been good. Glad you’ve finally seen the light. This album is solid and gets overshadowed by the band’s almost two decade long run of overproduced H&M music

Why don’t people just go “yeah I like that band but you don’t have to” like. I like tally hall, miracle musical, fuck man I thought joe hawleys solo album was fun. Because that’s MY music taste! You can hate it, that’s fine! People have opinions

I had such a blast watching you react to one of my favourite albums, would love for you to do this with some other muse stuff, Absolution, Blackholes and even showbiz are considered the iconic pillars of the fanbase! i feel like you would enjoy going through those if you liked this. cheers!

Damn you edit fast

A reaction to an Ayreon album would be neat, I'm currently obsessed and I can't stop listening to them It's like a proggy rock opera with a ton of guest artists

Ah hell nah now you HAVE TO react to every muse album

Plug in Baby is a fucking banger track, recognized it off the bat because it was a favorite to play in Guitar Hero 5, that riff kills and the vocals are spectacular

about a week ago i went and relistened to black holes & revelations and absolution, two of my most listened-to albums in middle school. expected them to be unbearable trash, and maybe they are and i'm just poisoned by nostalgia forever, but i found i still really liked them both. i never listened to origins of symmetry but hearing it here and knowing your take on it i think i'll give it a try!

Happy that you gave this a relisten, you should definitely listen to absolution though. I personally prefer it in parts to this album which is saying alot as i love O.O.S

You should see the Muse subreddit. They are grilling you and anybody who is giving the new album a bad review. I love muse and enjoyed the album for the most part but the echo chamber there is INSANE

For me : I love every album of Muse🥰 I love the old and the new that the band has made🤩 Even though the newness of Muse is hated by a lot of people, so what? I'm going to enjoy it, I don't care😁

More Muse would be really fun to watch) I know you don't normally do this, but you should definitely check out some live videos of Muse, they themselves have said before that they are a live band in the first place. Don't think it will make you love the songs more, but you will probably appreciate Muse more, cause they are top shelf performers

I am unreasonably upset that he didn't listen to Futurism, absolutely one of their most underrated tracks

Loved you in that video where you walk along a beach at first light, and it was all yellow…like your muse background.

You should check out the remastered version where they did enhance a lot of the instrumentals so it doesn't sound as crushed/muddy like the original.

It's weird that the tracks are in the wrong order, I just checked on my Spotify and everything is in the right order, probably a regional error I guess but still it's a weird oversight for such a massive band imo

Absolution next? i like that album, my favorite of their discografy with origin of symmetry

I remember the only muse song I've heard for a while was starlight, and I tought they were a very mild band. My godmother told me to listen to this album and I've been a fan since then.

The funniest thing about the Radiohead comparison is that Matt is not even a fan of them, nor does he consider them one of his influences. Matt's singing is inspired by Jeff Buckley, just like Thom's. Also, some people in the chat saying Muse fell off after Matt got into conspiracy theories... They'd be surprised to know Matt's downward spiral started in 2003, before he made Absolution, BH&R and The Resistance. He's still a nutcase, but he doesn't believe in conspiracies anymore.

WATP had its moments. It could have been something special, but they got in their own way. Origin of Symmetry is a top 10 album so far this century.

Definitely my favorite Muse album, wish would they would go back to this type of stuff. Don’t know what the hell they’re doing now. Glad to see you like this one, Brad!

if you like this you should really check out the remastered album. Its more than audio clean up they genuinely added and removed some stuff.

Muses classic album run from showbiz too Black holes is near flawless in my opinion

Belamy and Yorke singing is inspired by Jeff Buckley, both bands have a lot of influences of Buckley's music and singing

Please review the rest of the muse albums 🙏 and also review royal blood they are my 2 favourites

You should go through all the old Muse too see how good they were compared to their new stuff

You gotta check out Black Holes and Revelations if you haven’t, it’s personally my favorite, but who knows maybe you’ll like it too

Funnily enough. This was the review that got me into muse good job Bradley

You should listend to Transatlanticism by Death cab for Cutie, it has a really good songs with a very clever songwriting, when a I heared at firts didn't like it, I thought that was mid, but with the time I've been keep coming back to the album and really apreciate what they did in this very intimate warm album. You need to listen if you are not, it is a must listen, really. Hope that you see this comment.

I do like the statement of New World making it loud and clear that Muse was moving in a heavier direction for the rest of their career.

First 5 albums are perfect. I grew up listening to them so I'm a bit biased, but I still absolutely adore them and their music is insanely good. Absolution is my personal favorite.

❤ love your honest insights 🐾

I love the first five Muse albums, your prior video on them had me worried.

I really like the last video of Brad Taste before he went missing.

This video was a blast... you are a very funny guy!. Muse was my favorite band in the world, got to see them live several times and they are even better in concert. The first 3 albums are fantastic, to me masterpieces but after that they started to get popular and their sound started to change a lot and every album got worse and worse, like I said, they were my favorite band, I got to travel to England and Spain with the main reason being to go watch them live and got to the point that I was so disappointed with their trajectory that they did a show in my city here in Portugal and I didn't went to see them. I had very high hopes for this last album after hearing "Won't Stand Down", I only listened to the album once and comparing them to the shit they were making lately it's a big improvement but still nowhere close to their first 3 albums, but hey, it's a step in the right direction! One thing that I just don't get is people comparing them to Radiohead, I listen to Muse since 1999 and like I said, got to be my favorite band and was never that into Radiohead, I like many of their songs but I just don't see many similarities between their sounds, much less between the voices of Matt and Tom, but hey, that's me :) Congrats on the video, and do a similar thing with the first album, and I would recommend also doing it with the "Hullabaloo Sound Track" a live show in Paris that I think you can watch all of it on RU-vid... amazing performances!

Funny that you revisited this album but didn’t even listen to it as an entirely brand new experience because they remixed/remastered the entire album last year or two for the anniversary and brought out so many tracks that were lost or hidden in the original mix. Suggest that, you might enjoy listening to everything have more space and clearness.

Absolution took the dramatic grand instrumentals in a different direction, instead of being gothic and spacey it feels more opera and classical, which I think they pulled off really well on a lot of the tracks. I would say there are probably a few tracks on Absolution you would like less than some of the stuff here, but also some songs that for me surpass most of the stuff on OOS. Like they really nailed their own sound. Matt’s vocals are more controlled too, which i would say fits the new sound better, even though his psychotic falsetto is great.

This album is a 9/10 for me (9.6 for a more specific answer) but man this album is catchy yet so raw, the lyrics are implicit but has a meaning to it, the production may be the worst for me but is really fitting to the album to the point it has a charm to it, especially the more fuzzy moments in the album, this is my personal favourite album of the 00’s it’s so nostalgic yet so good for the year that is released, this album is considered as one the the bests of that year and it does deserve it.

I was tryna tell him

I grew up with Muse so maybe I have a little bias, but I still think all their albums from Showbiz to the 2nd Law range from great to pretty good. Even Drones has some bright spots too. It's unfortunate about this new path they're taking as a band, completely forgetting what made them loved in the first place, but I still think their first 5 albums are for sure worth listening to.

Full Balckholes and Revelations please! Love your comments.

I reacently showed My father WOTP (we are both muse fans, but he is a Lot more into the technicalities of songs than i am) and, although he thought it was an ok album, he said this "it's more like Bellamy composed all of this In his head and only brought the band to play it" Because In WOTP, unlike any other muse álbum, lacks a Lot of "Muse" things, like a really present and "atacking" bass, or the drumer giving the little details he can give In a Lot of songs, where it doesn't feel like he is just playing the basic Beat of the song, but in WOTP it can reach a point where it Sounds like it's programed In a Computer. Don't get me wrong, i enjoy the most chaotic sounding songs, mi top 3 being: 1-Kill or be Killed 2-Euphoria and 3-we are fucking fucked/WSD, and in N° 10-WOTP, but it is definetly not One of the Best recent albums of Muse (I preffer Drones, the globalist being One of My all time favourite songs of muse In general) (Sorry if i miss-pronunciate some words or if a sentence doesn't make sense, i'm not very good at writting In English)

Muse is great. Seeing them live is a fun experience.

aah you should've "listened" to your live chat and listened to the XX remix version of this album, it elevates all the songs, they did a really great job at remixing the album. it kept the album's integrity but it sounds better, as if 2001 Muse recorded this album with today's technology, i highly recommend!

I think that the 20 year remaster would probably be a better first listen these days (except for the Citizen Erased and Micro Cuts transition)

I glad you liked it! This is one of my fave albums of all time and I think it’s so special. The RadioheadXmuse fight is so boring and played out like, I feel like no comparison to Radiohead anyone could make would make this album bad. It’s just good. Matt is a great singer with a unique voice, they have a unique sound. Cool to see someone rediscover this gem in 2022!

Pleasee Brad listen to black holes and revelations it’s a perfect album .and absolution too! Starlight is one of my favorite songs ever

Aw, thanks Brad!

absolution absolutely bangs

8:16 i was really late to the Radiohead club, so when i listened to OK Computer for the first time and Paranoid Android came on i actually shot up and went to make sure spotify hadnt put on Muse fsr