Another new single now has now totally mucked any theories on the band’s new direction, Muse came strong once again with one of the grooviest prog pop singles of the year, ‘Compliance’.

The last Muse single, ‘Won’t Stand Down’, was possibly the heaviest Muse song ever recorded. Filled with breakdowns, distorted guitars and an edge that competes with the likes of Slipknot, people have their suspicions that Muse was pivoting to a more metal sound with their new project. With ‘Compliance’, however, everything is thrown out of the window. From the first sound heard, the heavy vocalized chorus, you’re immediately thrown into a 90s industrial tune akin to Daft Punk. It’s so irresistibly poppy and groovy, yet so jarringly different even for Muse. The verse combines the traditional melodies that made Muse too stylish to begin with a distorted bass-and-drum groove. Navigating its way through the various choruses, the song then comes to another twist in the bridge where the band starts messing with the chords through arpeggiated synths, putting the ‘progressive’ in ‘progressive pop’. The song then takes a calmer approach, with Matt’s soaring vocals leading the floaty nature of the latter part of the bridge, going to the chorus for one final time. That repetition of the part, however, starts with an entire repetition’s worth of buildup only to blow up with the climax of the track. Groovy electronic drums overlain the organic drums that were leading the track before, with a variation to the melody at the end bring this song to a beautiful close.

‘Compliance’ is extremely uncanny for a dance track, but by Muse’s standards, it’s both expected and unexpected. They’ve never perfected this style so much up to this point, but also considering the previous direction of the band, this is a wonderful surprise. It’s expertly conducted and performed from start to finish, and despite its slightly longer runtime, it feels perfect in almost every way, especially for a pop song.

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.