Muse Confront Global Instability, War, Authoritarianism on 9th Album, ‘Will of the People’

Muse are not holding anything back on their upcoming ninth album, Will of the People. The hard-hitting English rock trio announced the title of the 10-track collection on Thursday (March 17), Will of the People, which is slated to drop on Aug. 26 via Warner Records.

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“Will Of The People was created in Los Angeles  and London and is influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world,” said singer Matt Bellamy in a statement. “A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilization of the global order all informed Will Of The People.  It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened.  This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next.”

On the heels of the collection’s bombastic, metal-edged first single, “Won’t Stand Down,” the group also dropped a new song, “Compliance,” an urgent, keyboard-heavy metallic funk tune accompanied by a dystopian Pink Floyd-like video. In the visual, menacing masked figures and citizens with eerie glowing eyes bring the tune’s ominous refrain to life: “Compliance/ We just need your compliance/ You will feel no pain anymore/ And no more defiance/ We just need your compliance,” Bellamy sings.

In a statement, the frontman said the song is about, “submission to authoritarian rules and reassuring untruths to be accepted to an in-group. Gangs, governments, demagogues, social media algorithms & religions seduce us during times of vulnerability, creating arbitrary rules and distorted ideas for us to comply with. They sell us comforting myths, telling us only they can explain reality while simultaneously diminishing our freedom, autonomy and independent thought. We are not just coerced, we are herded, frightened and corralled to produce a daily ‘2 minutes of hate’ against an out-group of their choosing and to turn a blind eye to our own internal voice of reason & compassion.  They just need our Compliance.”

The album was produced by the band — singer/guitarist Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard — with mixing on eight tracks by Grammy-winner Serban Ghenea, additional mixing on “Won’t Stand Down” by Dan Lancaster and Alex von Korff (“Kill or Be Killed”).

Promising a mix of several genres, the album will also feature the title track (described as bringing a “playful provocation to a dystopian glam-rocker”), as well as “Verona” (“nostalgic electronic textures”), “Kill or Be Killed” (“industrial-tinged, granite heavy riffs”), “Euphoria” (a “lightning-bolt rush”) and the “frenetic.. brutally honest” album-ender “We Are F–king F–ked.”  

The two-time Grammy-winning prog-rock trio’s most recent album, 2018’s Simulation Theory, hit No. 1 in the U.K., marking their sixth chart-topper at home.

 Watch the “Compliance” video and see the full track list below.

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1. “Will Of The People”
2. “Compliance”
3. “Liberation”
4. “Won’t Stand Down”
5. “Ghosts (How Can I Move On)”
6. “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween”
7. “Kill Or Be Killed”
8. “Verona”
9. “Euphoria”
10. “We Are F–king F–ked”

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