Musings

          Very few musical artists have the ability to go beyond mere music and take their listeners on a journey as they move through the album: Muse is one of those bands. The Resistance is one of my favorite albums of all time. I can't even give Muse's newest album a proper listening because I love The Resistance that much. Beginning with a booming anthem and ending with a delicate symphony, this album takes the listener on a journey of rebellion, hope, oppression, fear, and finally acceptance.

           My favorite part about this album is not just the brilliant music or lyrics, it's the fact that it tells a story. And I'm not saying that in a "this music makes me feel like it's the soundtrack to my life" kind of way. They literally tell a story.

            I'm sure others have realized this before me, however as far as I know no one has actually come out with a detailed list of how Muse told the story. I'm just crazy enough to be that person. The story I am referencing is none other than George Orwell's 1984. The book is also one of my favorites. It's one of the few books I have actually read more than once. I'm not sure why I love books of the utopia/dystopia persuasion so much, but they are undoubtedly my favorite.

            I've been wanting to write the comparison between this album and the book for a few years now. I guess I was waiting for one of my professors to give us an open-topic or comparison paper so I could whip it out then and sound absolutely brilliant and blow them away. Much to my dismay, the opportunity never came.

            Now I have a blog. A blog about nonsense. If there were ever a place for such a comparison I reckon a nonsense blog is as good a place as any. Maybe it'll go viral. Maybe the members of Muse will read it and think "FINALLY someone got all of those vague references in our lyrics!" and I'll be famous. Maybe.

Note: I am not going to get too terribly deep with the meanings of phrases or subtle hints that could maybe mean something- I'm simply pointing out the blatant references or similar themes to the book. It's obvious the album is about some sort of governmental revolt, but there are certain specific phrases that allude back to the book.

If you have never read 1984, you will be 100% confused if you don't read this first.

Let's begin.

Muse says: "The PR transmissions will resume, They'll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down, And hope that we will never see the truth around."

1984 says: "She has without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it to her."


Muse says:  "Is our secret safe tonight, And are we out of sight...Will they find our hiding place, Is this our last embrace"

1984 says:  "Now that they had a secure hiding place, almost a home, it did not even seem a hardship that they could only meet infrequently and for a couple of hours at a time."


Muse says:  "It could be wrong, Could be wrong, This is out of control. It could be wrong, could be wrong, It can never last."

1984 says:  "Both of them knew- in a way, it was never out of their minds- that what was happening could not last long."


Muse says:  "Kill the prayers for love and peace, You'll wake the thought police, We can't hide the truth inside"

1984 says:   "It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police."


Muse says:  "Love is our resistance, They'll keep us apart they won't stop breaking us down."

1984 says:  "The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love and justice. Ours is founded on hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy- everything...There will be no love except for love of Big Brother..."


Muse says:  "You and me fall in line, to be punished for unproven crimes."

1984 says:  "He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew."


Muse says:  "And these wars, they can't be won, Does anyone know or care how they begun? They just promise to go on and on and on..."

1984 says: "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war."


Muse says: "There can be only one United States of Eurasia!"

1984 says: "I remember that until only a week before I was arrested, we were not at war with Eastasia at all. We were in alliance with them. The war was against Eurasia. That had lasted for four years. Before that..."


Muse says:  "Counterbalance this commotion, We're not droplets in the ocean, We're the ocean."

1984 says: "This, he thought with a sort of vague distaste- this was London, chief city of Airstrip One, itself the third most populous of the provinces in Oceania."


Muse says:  "A universe trapped inside a tear, It resonates the core, Creates unnatural laws, replaces love and happiness with fear."

1984 says: "Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
and 
"No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred."


Muse says:  "Invisible to all, the mind becomes a wall."

1984 says: "He was standing in front of a wall of darkness, and on the other side of it was something unendurable, something too dreadful to be faced."


Muse says:  "All of history deleted with one stroke."

1984 says:  "This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date."


Muse says:  "Who are we, where are we, Who are we in here?"

1984 says:  "Was it not a sign that it was not the natural order of things, if one's heart sickened at the dirt and scarcity, the interminable winters, the stickiness of one's own socks, the lifts that never worked, the cold water, the gritty soap, the cigarettes that came to pieces, the food with its strange evil tastes? Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had been different?"


Muse says:  "Breach through the outer sphere, the edge of all our fears..."

1984 says:  "We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you: not a name on a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as the future. You will have never existed."


Muse says:  "Just let us start it over again, And we'll be good this time we'll get it right."

1984 says:  "He was back at the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow."




         And that's that. This post took me two afternoons to write. I basically re-read the entire book hunting for good quotes to back up the lyrics. I could have explained the similarities using my own words, but it felt more poignant to use Orwell's own words. This book is brilliant. So is the album. I suggest listening to the album while reading the book. The only way it could possibly get any better than that is to read the book while listening to the album while watching the movie. But I've never watched the movie so I cannot, with confidence, say that is a good idea. In my opinion Matt Bellamy of Muse has taken the emotions that one feels from reading a book and correctly translates them into music. He also wrote a symphony for this album. So...you know...he's pretty amazing.

         I will leave you with this. It's a good song.