Matt Bellamy's voice aside, Muse have finally absorbed their Radiohead influences. Now they've taken Yes as a new template, whether knowingly or not. It's a natural development for the classical music-loving Bellamy, especially on "Blackout", where swiftly fluttering guitars and massed orchestral strings interbreed for a few seconds in one of the few fruitful rock-classical hybrids, and the "Paranoid Android"-scale "Stockholm Syndrome". Exactly what Jon Anderson and co were shooting for 30 years back, only inevitably a certain muddiness of purpose and melody hamper them. And please, no Tales From Topographic Oceans.
Matt Bellamy’s voice aside, Muse have finally absorbed their Radiohead influences. Now they’ve taken Yes as a new template, whether knowingly or not. It’s a natural development for the classical music-loving Bellamy, especially on “Blackout”, where swiftly fluttering guitars and massed orchestral strings interbreed for a few seconds in one of the few fruitful rock-classical hybrids, and the “Paranoid Android”-scale “Stockholm Syndrome”. Exactly what Jon Anderson and co were shooting for 30 years back, only inevitably a certain muddiness of purpose and melody hamper them. And please, no Tales From Topographic Oceans.
