Top 5- Muse

You know, one of these days I’ll start posting regularly again. Or not.

It’s me, your favorite (hopefully) fish brain! This week, we’re headed away from the EDM (thankfully) and back to alternative, which is better.

So, about Muse: I know at least one song, and I’ve been meaning to do this for a while (much like the Neon Trees post), and therefore, using my divine fish power, I moved them up the list. I’m allowed to do that. The fish brain is all-powerful.

With that said, I nearly forgot to update my Spotify playlist but I did, (it’s just called Top 5 playlist because I’m dull), and the queue is up on Google Play, so let’s do this!

Today’s list is: Uprising, Starlight, Madness, Supermassive Black Hole, and Hysteria.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Onwards!

Uprising

I’m pretty sure I’ve read this book.

That… is a fun beat right there. Also, that not-a-theremin-but-I-want-it-to-be-so-we’ll-call-it-that is awesome. I’m liking this so far, and the words haven’t even started.

I kinda can’t help dancing slightly to this. That beat is just so good.

Okay, so I do have something to say about the music here, which is a nice change.

The not-a-theremin is kind of a futuristic bloopy sound, and when you listen to the words, it’s not hard to imagine a dystopian society where everything is being controlled, Hunger Games style. So if you think about it, it sounds kinda like a protest-anger-rage-song from the future, which is awesome.

Wow. I really have read this book. Come on, is it so hard to imagine the people of District 13, the factionless, Omega Point, the Scarlet Guard, the Rising, or maybe even the literal Resistance doing a training montage to this song?

I should be a director. Now that I’m thinking about it, we’re gonna do this.

The song starts, and there’s a nice shot of a training room, (probably grey or black or white, because nobody ever paints their secret hideout pink). A bunch of people are shooting targets. We zoom in on one, (let’s call them Z), who’s managed to shoot like the same spot on their target. (wow, they’re good). Then we jump to a dirty street, with some sad people being sad. Some big scary trucks come by to arrest someone. The person (D), fights back, and is ultimately killed. It’s very scary. Multiple people are injured.

Back to the not-pink resistance hideout, and Z is doing some awesome heroic stuff. Maybe they and a bunch of other people are standing around a table, making plans. Cut to someone (maybe even Z) making an announcement on a TV, and the people watching looking at each other and looking kinda convinced. There’s a bunch of fighting, and Z is awesome.

Do they win? Do they lose? You decide.

I should definitely be a director. I could centre a whole movie plot (albeit a stereotyped, cliche one) around this song.

I didn’t go much into the meaning, but hey, you get the idea.

Overall, this song is difficult not to dance to, has a pretty cool beat, and is just generically awesome.

If that’s anything to go by, this is gonna be good.

Starlight

Took a little while for the link to work, but it did.

Ooh, guitar. And then piano, and I know this song. I don’t know how, but I’ve definitely heard this before.

It’s almost a little more low-key than Uprising, but like… not? Instead of the not-theremin, there’s piano, which is fun but less theremin-y.

So, into the meaning.

First off, we have: ‘Far away/ This ship has taken me far away/ Far away from the memories/ Of the people who care if I live or die’

Well. Let’s say we’re talking about a literal ship here. They’re (we’ll call them S) going ‘far away’ for a reason. My theory is, are you ready for this.

‘Far away from the memories’- it sounds like this ‘ship’, whether literal or metaphorical, has taken S away from these people, so much so that they’ve forgotten S.

Then, we get: ‘Starlight/ I will be chasing a starlight/ Until the end of my life/ I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore.’

So maybe S has been looking for this thing, this ‘starlight’, for a long time, and their search has taken them away from everything they knew. They’re beginning to question if it was all worth it.

The next part is kinda mixed into like 5 different parts, but the general gist of it is that S has found their starlight, and they’re asking the other person (K?) not to leave them, ‘not to fade away’.

And this is all very nice, but there’s a slightly darker tone to the song that makes me think that’s not the end. It says ‘Hold you in my arms/ I just wanted to hold you in my arms’. The thing is, it’s using the past tense. So what if S looked for their starlight, they found K, and for whatever reason, K left? And that’s why they’ll be ‘chasing a starlight’ for the rest of their life, because they can’t let go? What if the whole ‘our hopes and expectations/ black holes and revelations’ is because they realised that K was leaving? Or, even worse, K died?

See you, I’m going to go cry for a week straight.

Madness

This one is a lot more… bass-y? Not sure how to describe it, but it’s there.

Not really much I can say for the meaning of this song. It sounds a lot like the person (let’s bring back X, shall we?) is starting to realise that maybe their relationship with (let’s say W, because X and Y broke up last post) isn’t going to work. Maybe they fight a lot. Maybe the relationship is the madness. They tried to end it, but the madness stopped them. Maybe W has been telling them that it’s not working, but X didn’t listen, and now they see it. X is asking if anything was ever real, or if it was just- you guessed it- madness.

It’s less of a sad song and more of a quietly resigned one. It’s not upset- it’s just tired.

There also isn’t really a chorus, adding to the whole tired feel of the song.

Well, that’s fun.

Supermassive black hole

There we go. This one has more of a beat. That’s nice.

If you’re a Twilight fan, which I am not, you’ll know that this is in the movie. If you’re me, you’ll know that because you’re looking at the trivia on Genius. If you’re not a Twilight fan, you’ll know that because I just told you.

I’m not really sure with this song. It’s in falsetto, which is fun, but I’m not sure.

Oh, wait. Thank you, Genius, for the ideas. Come on, I’m only a fish brain.

So the ‘supermassive black hole’, is a person, we’re gonna call them T. T is a jerk. They’re demanding, attention-seeking, cold, and a liar. The other person, shall we say F, is struggling, falling into the ‘supermassive black hole’.

‘Ooh, baby, don’t you know I suffer?’- T doesn’t listen to F, ignores their suffering.

‘Ooh, you set my soul alight’- in someways, F does love T, it’s just hard sometimes.

‘I thought I was a fool for no-one but ooh baby I’m a fool for you’- F is being an idiot, knows they’re being an idiot, wants to leave T but can’t.

And you get the idea. And yes, I brought F back. You decide where this fits into the Timeline of F.

Hysteria

Isn’t that a Def Leppard album?

Well, there’s some guitar. And there’s some drums. And some synth. And I love this song.

So, since I’m not sure, we’re gonna need a little help from the video, which starts with a dude who is quite possibly on drugs passed out in a hotel room.

This dude then proceeds to watch a bunch of videos of this one lady. So he’s a stalker.

Great. This is great.

There’s possibly some stuff of this lady going out with another guy, which annoys Mr. Stalker, so he breaks a bunch of stuff. The hysteria is essentially him screaming and breaking stuff because he wants to be with this one lady.

Messed up, but no more so than the Murder Trilogy.

This song is a lot… darker? Is that the right word? Even the guitar is more intense, and it’s more scream-y.

The final part of the video shows the lady in question running somewhere or away from something while Mr Stalker breaks stuff. Eventually there’s nothing left for him to smash, so he kinda lies down, and then, wait for it, the random lady appears, and he’s filming.

So now I don’t know what to think. Any ideas? Anyone?

Conclusion

I really, really like it.

I started this to find new artists to listen to, because I used to listen pretty much exclusively to the Killers, which isn’t a bad thing, but Variety is Fun™. And from this day forth, I am inducting Muse into the Pantheon of Artists I Like, which currently includes The Killers, Imagine Dragons, American Authors, Neon Trees, Twenty One Pilots and now Muse.

So yay!

Honourable Mention: Tied between Uprising and Starlight. I love them both.

Anyway, Walk The Moon is up next week, so I’ll see you then for another Top 5, a million terrible jokes, some bad directing, and a few gazillion references.

Finally, in the wise words of Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, and Ronnie Vanucci:

We hope you enjoyed your stay. It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day.

Fish brain out.