This being the 10th album from the Devonshire trio ‘Muse’ – ‘Matthew Bellamy’, ‘Chris Wolstenholme’ and ‘Dominic Howard’ – have returned to the fore after several years on a longer than usual hiatus before returning to the studio in 2025. They are once again bringing with them a large slice of rock music this time built around themes closer to home and to those that influenced the band in their infancy and throughout their career, for a love of all things space and sci-fi.
The Origin of The WOW Signal
The title of the album “The WOW Signal” apparently originated from the constellation Sagittarius – coming from one of the earliest efforts to reach out to the stars for the quest for life in space.
The name of the album is taken from the piece of paper which was output and written on saying WOW in one of the earliest efforts in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Anyone who used the SETI @ Home application in earlier days of the Internet web v1.0 will know – deciphering radio signals in the earliest efforts of public collaborative computing cloud power project, quite an initiative, with each user hoping they they will find a special signal, burning up electricity in the process.
Jerry R Ehman was the leading Astronomer and scientist scouring the skies for radio signals at Ohio State University in 1977 circled a section of high narrowband signal received using the Big Ear radio antenna and wrote alongside the printer readout ‘Wow!’.
If you also watched the 1997 Sci-Fi film “Contact” feat. “Jody Foster” and “Matthew McConaughey” you will remember the similar antics at the Arecibio Observatory.
It is with this sense of adventure and discovery, turning their back on the past and yearning for valued connections with higher forces that the band themselves embark upon with this album.
With the core guitar, bass and drums forming the prominent soundscape for this album they’re accompanied by resounding synths, falsetto vocals, exploratory digtal tones, arpeggios, breakdowns and even involving the London Metropolitan Orchestra on several tracks to round off the truly bombastic theatrical big sound that shrouds this album.
Track Breakdown
The Dark Forest
Galloping in to the album is a grandiose orchestral composition with the track title taken from the theory stemming from the dark Forest theory on the Femi theory – about the possible warnings of broadcasting our own existence to the unknown whilst searching for companionship in this galaxy and universe. Is is better to stay quiet and concealed instead of seeking neighbourly relations broadcasting ourselves to anyone or thing listening in the reaches of space, is there life out there? Is it safe to even call our galactic neighbours?
Midway through the song an operatic moment arises with chants in Latin which may sound as a warning or a yearning of the unknown beyond the terrestial
“Sanctus Signum, Dominus Deus, Cometa Altissimus, Currus Machina, Navis Lucifer, Kyrie Eleison“
The song builds in intensity and explodes in orchestral drum laden phrases of zero gravity.
A magnifique introduction
Nightshift Superstar
Following on from the more funky Muse songs that listeners have enjoyed over the years such as “Panic Station” and the now 20 year old song ‘Supermassive Black Hole’; ‘Nightshift Superstar’ takes on the helm for the more upbeat song on the album, pulling no punches in being unapolgeticlly prominently dance based.
This song is bound for the dancefloor and will no doubt be remixed and will make even the most inamimate stiffest of hard-to-please crowds break out in shuffles, the basslines are solid, plucky deep pocketted with a good sprinkling of slap bass over this song is akin to a grafitti artist having their sauded way spraying over someoneelses artwork, this song breaks cliches of what defines rock pop dance crossover music and takes on its own beautiful disco persona, with heavy influences from one the drummer ‘Dominic Howard’s favourite French bands ‘Justice’, this French house-music inspired track is destined for greatness in European clubs and festivals.
Shimmering Scars
This song builds on the piano as the core instrument one that Matt has known intimately since learning to play music at a young age which is a perfect platform for one of the impassioned personal songs for frontman Matthew Bellamy, an old time instrument and familiar friend for him, in tandem with up close singing the song builds a personal confessioon and a hope for better things. Matt has said some of the songs were very personal to write.
This song could be seen as more of a theraputic healing process from recent experiences and struggles that the bombastic singer songwriter composer has discussed and has been reported on recently.
This song stands stong on its own merit and continues the more dynamic sound for this album haarping back to the anthemic space inspired songs layered with delicate cymbal and drum work, laid out raw and naked with lyrics such as ‘Stonewall silence, while your eyes still flirting, Was i not enough, i carry half the blame’ this song is somethinng of closure and coming to terms with situations.
Cryogen
Debuted at the O2 Brixton Academy Show recently this song makes a play on words with its riffs and hooks, opening with with big guitar riffage sounding akin to Plug In Baby, but that changes all changes with the verses breaking in to massive sounding choruses with big bass lines and drops backdropping prominent lead vocals, all this makes this song a certain fan favourite and has already won the hearts of many muse fans who will be singing ‘Cryogen, i can never cry again, I’m freezing over’, with the song ending with riffs and outro perfect for moshing along to.
Be With You
In a recent interview Matthew explained that the opening to this song was Played on an LA Church organ, bold lyrics such as ‘i wont bow to the universe’ this song is tracked along disco beats and offers an undeniable positivity and will go down s storm in festivals, maybe even taking the place of songs such as Madness.
Hexagons
Opening with progressions and multilayered guitars and synths and rock crescendos this is firmly in the middle of another space operatic production no doubt, with rapidly ascending synth arpeggios intertwined in the main body of this sing with haunting lrics the song, echo space breaks ‘Our resistance is mass produced’. ‘Love will field our failed rebellion’, could lend itself to how society and culture has been steered and not left to unpredictable outcomes – this song is monumental, the musical spaces created in this album at the point keep expanding.
Muse have used Hexagons in previous live show productions and we will probably see them again for this album tour.
The Sickness In You & I
Another of the songs of a very personal nature for Matt, this song goes hard, with chugging riffs accompanied to a simple samba based rhythm moving in to raucous slap heavy beats layered with a dark funky bassline
‘we move in the dark’ ‘Too late to kill the high’, ‘so tease me to satisfy the sickness in you and i’, ‘I’m craving your touch will save me’.. the drums are solid on this track some immense downtempo breakdowns and ride crashes and unpredictable drumwork make this for a wild song that intertwines a theme of calmness and borderline craziness whose destination is entirely different from its conceptions. Another song written and crafted out of personal experiences. This is not your generic rock track, or album.
Unravelling
‘An insect trapped in Amber, and the static hum, the ecstasy was false’ .. after the intimate subtleties of the opening lines the song along an electro beat the song transitions to explosive and mammoth breakdowns and crescendos of spine-tingling high energy vocals and drums, this song was debuted also at the Brixton Academy show this song may indicate the unravelling of a personal chapter but it has a euphoric chorus that is next level, Muse may have taken some time out of the office but tracks such as Unravelling show they still mean business.
Hush
An accidental collaboration with Elle Goulding, that’s how Matthew Bellamy described this song in a recent interview to the NME when the band were working on this song and Ellie popped her head in to the studio and asked if she could sing on the album!
Why not Matthew quipped and so the song was reworked to turn this in to a duet as the song stands now. In an unlikely collaboration this song is a perfect marriage between rock and pop with singers from both genres on top form this song will appeal to fans of both Ellie and Muse and shows that the band is not afraid to be experimental to take risks and are happy to push the boundaries of what defines Muse as a band and of their sound.
Space Debris
The song starts with a sample of the WOW Signal itself and features throughout the song, with intimate vocals and a slow steady beat this song is more of a reprise and the ending of the album, humanity or of ones life knowing that in the end we are all space debris, space dust and that we all return to from where we all came from, the vocals are a last remembrance of what life is and the search for love and companionship, drifting, tumbling in space.
A cathartic masterpiece, an adventurous direction
With some fans calling this album ‘Epic‘, ‘the finest work that Muse have done‘, it would seem theres plenty of life left in the band who formed back in 1994 at the Den at a sleepy seaside town “Teignmouth”, this being their 10th album (and now 8th UK number 1 album) may just be the most challenging, enjoyable and mature from the band exploring jouneys of the self and wonder and posing the question of what intelligence life is out there as humanity seems to be doing a rather poor job the past decade or so.
The WOW Signal disembarks from the previous 2 albums “Simulation Theory” and “Will of the People” with overt political themes, this is a refreshing adventurous reminder of what makes Muse MUSE, genre defying, conceptual and continually evolving.
An unflinchingly good album with solid footing in roots/rhythm & blues, rock with the electronic and space-pop magic decorating this 45 minute space rock opera makes for a captivating listen.
Verdict: An album out of this world
The reigns of the production were given to Dan Lancaster to co-produce with Muse who had themselves self produced previous albums, Dan is reknown for his work with “Bring Me The Horizon” he is also the 4th live tour band member taking over the helm for synths/keys and additional guitar duties from “Morgan Nicholls” at the “Simulation Theory” era, this album is an exciting compilation of songs with an overarching theme of discovery and self-belief.
This next installment of Muse and their musical journey has been unravelled the way most albums are released in modernity with several singles tease-released in advance or performed which is the perfect way to curate to audiences a full body of work and to whet the appetite of music fans building upon continual feedback and engagement with audiences.
This is a surefire certain number 1 success in the UK, Europe as well as the USA, i can see how fans past and present will appreciate most if not all of the songs, Muse are showing that they are still as relevant tooday as they were back when their first album Showbiz was released back in 1999,
This is a banger of an album and is available to purchase at all good record & online stores as well as the band’s own web store..
You can buy tickets for their upcoming autumnal shows to experience their arena shows before the band go big with their production for next year’s Summer tours
