Important lyrical themes on the album are social collapse, totalitarianism and the second law of thermodynamics, to which the album`s title refers. Musically, the band decided to experiment significantly and create a different sound from their previous albums. The album`s sound includes art rock, progressive rock and electronic music with Muse`s traditional alternative rock style. Bands such as Queen, David Bowie and Skrillex were also major influences on the album. The album cover features a map of human brain pathways from the Human Connectome Project. The band recorded at AIR studios in London and EastWest in Los Angeles and diversified their sound more than ever, with Matt Bellamy misleading music journalists by describing Muse`s new album as a “Christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey with rebellious ambient dubstep and cowboy metal-flamenco psychedelia”. Although he was clearly joking, it is true that The 2nd Law offered fans something very different, mixing the alt-rock bombast that had made Muse one of the best musicians of the 2000s with electronic influences, thanks to the Kitara synth guitar newly purchased by Bellamy. Like cowboys in the heart of the Wild West, Muse was back on the horse and ready to conquer the world again. Muse has revealed the cover of their new album “The 2nd Law”, which you can see at the top of the page. 6.
In June 2012, Muse released a trailer for The 2nd Law with a countdown timer on the band`s website, suggesting a September 17 release date. The trailer, which contained dubstep elements, elicited mixed reactions from fans.[32] [33] [34] “Survival” was released as the album`s lead single on 27 June 2012 and premiered on BBC Radio 1`s Zane Lowe show, with the song`s counterpart, “Prelude”. The song served as the official song at the 2012 London Olympics.[36] and peaked at number 22 on the UK Singles Chart.[35] [37] Excellent analysis! I never knew how personal this album was for the band, or at least for Matt and Chris. With the Olympics scheduled to take place in London later this summer, Muse had the honor of creating an official song for the occasion. The brilliantly bombastic result Survival was released as a single in June 2012 and surprised listeners because it is built from a vivid piano riff, accompanied by opera singers, before exploding into an exaggerated rocker, as if sung by a win-hungry athlete (“Race, life`s a race / That I`m going to win”). Survival reached number 22 in the UK charts and launched the band`s sprint towards their next album. With the global energy crisis seemingly inevitable, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy began work on his band`s sixth album with band members Chris Wolstenholme (bass) and Dominic Howard (drums) in late 2011. Nearly three years had passed since the release of the band`s previous album, The Resistance, but Bellamy felt the world had changed for the worse. Alarmed by the political consequences of the Great Recession and the apocalyptic media prophets threatening to collapse economically, Bellamy has assembled a new collection of songs with all the zeal of a crazy conspiracy theorist. The resulting album, The 2nd Law, which complements Bellamy`s status as a paranoid pariah with esoteric scientific theories to tackle the world`s ills, will find Muse the most musically ambitious.