Of all the bands releasing comeback albums in 2015, perhaps none are under pressure than Refused. Not only was the band’s final album, 1998’s The Shape of Punk to Come a phenomenal album and a perfect close to their career, but their break up is every bit as important to their legacy as their time together. With their new album Freedom, they’ll have to not only make a good album, but prove to fans that it was an album worth reuniting for.
Musically speaking, 2015 has been a pretty big year. A lot of incredible new albums, a fair amount of disappointments too. Honestly, 2015 looks like it might go down as one of the best years in music, if not on par with years like 1967 and 1994, then at least willing to give them a run for their money.
Matt Bellamy’s lyrics have always sucked. They have. It doesn’t mean he gets a free pass to continue sucking.
But it’s about the military industrial complex.It’s so deep. It really isn’t. In fact, it’s as generic and cliché-filled as it could be.
Ok, it’s generic, but that riff is cool as hell though. No, that riff is even more generic than the lyrics. This one I really don’t get. Sure, it’s a matter of opinion, but are we hearing the same song? Anybody could have done this.
They’ve been a band for twenty years. Then they should know better.
They worked really hard on this. Did they?
Muse change their style on every album. True, and sometimes that change is for the worse. I love it when bands experiment with their sound but, once again, it doesn’t give them an excuse for sucking.
The only thing worse than the new Muse song, is knowing that it’ll bring out the same insufferable fans that come out every three years, whenever they release new material. When The Resistance came out the excuse was “They’re trying something new,” as if that stopped it from sucking. Black Holes and Revelations was something new, and I love that album. I hated The Resistance because it was bad. Simple as that.
When The 2nd Law (which I actually enjoyed quite a lot of), I heard cries of “The hater’s don’t get it, it’s actually very deep.” Because nothing spells deep like a robot lady talking about the recession over a fat drop. I “got” The 2nd Law, a toddler could get it.
Now I guess the excuse is that Muse just suck, and we’re supposed to accept that. Matt Bellamy has been a terrible lyricist for long enough that we let him off the hook. Let’s ignore the fact that being bad at something for a long time shouldn’t earn you praise, and let’s ignore the fact that lyrically this song is bad even by Muse standards. It’s just the way they are. Either love it or don’t listen, but for the love of god don’t expect them to do any better.
Following some major changes, The Smashing Pumpkins are back with their 9th studio album, Monuments to an Elegy. This album sees the departure of bassist Nicole Fiorentino and drummer Mike Byrne, with Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee behind the kit. But with frontman Billy Corgan being the only original member left, it’s clear that line-up changes have never stopped him before. The Smashing Pumpkins had an impressive comeback with 2012’s Oceania, but does this new release keep the quality up?
If there’s anything 2014 wants to remind us, it’s that 1994 was a hell of a good year for music. We’ve already celebrated the 20th anniversaries of such classics as Jar of Flies, Dookie, Superunknown, The Downward Spiral, Smash, Live Through This, Illmatic and Parklife. And that’s only the beginning of it. Later in the year we’ll be celebrating the anniversaries of albums such as Definitely Maybe, Welcome to Sky Valley, MTV Unplugged in New York and Ready to Die among many more. It’s honestly shocking just how many great albums came out in 1994. For today though it’s the turn of Weezer’s self-titled debut, better known as The Blue Album.