Headscratchers / Muse

• For a bit in "I Belong to You," (track 8 on The Resistance) Matt sings in French briefly. IT'S TERRIBLE. Did they just give him a sheet with some French words on it and say "sound it out?"
  • At least it sounds better than Lady Gaga did in French.
  • It's actually a bit from an aria from an opera, and Matt Bellamy is known to use classical music in his music, so it's entirely possible that he actually knows what it sounds like and he's just not that good at French.
• Why, oh why, do people keep saying that Muse are a rip off of Radiohead? The two bands sound absolutely nothing alike!
  • Upon listening to Radiohead after Muse, and upon heard "My Iron Lung" it's understood why people would make the comparison; it sounds not entirely unlike Muse's sound circa Origin of Symmetry or Absolution. (And, from the alternate perspective, a few specific Muse songs sound a lot like Radiohead songs; the resemblance between "Soldier's Poem" and "No Surprises" is striking.) But it turned out that that song wasn't representative of The Bends in general, so the headscratching is back.
  • Simple answer: Matthew Bellamy and pre-Kid A era Thom Yorke share a very similar singing range and style. That's really as far as the comparison goes, but it's definitely one people will notice.
  • The similarities are there. Muse often sounds a lot like some of the stuff on The Bends and OK Computer. Of course, any resemblance has been blasted away since Kid A.
  • You could say that the Jeff Buckley influence that both bands share is evident when you compare, say, The Bends to Muse's Showbiz. Sharing a producer probably helps as well. Bellamy even admitted to similarities between the two, and has stated that while bored of Radiohead comparisons, he takes them as a compliment. Pretty much everyone agrees that Muse were well past that point when the second album came out anyway.
  • Showbiz bore more than a passing resemblance to Radiohead's style used on The Bends, and a bit of OK Computer as well as The Bends was present in the dense soup of musical influences that was Origin of Symmetry. However, by the time of Absolution, any resemblance they had to Radiohead was gone.
    • And, on Muse's end, they sound more like Queen than like Radiohead now.
    • "United States of Eurasia / Collateral Damage" is a big offender, especially later in to the song. It's the voice + guitar riff at about 1:15 in.
  • Muse is a more theatrical Radiohead. Seriously.
    • Especially with the new album. It's kind of a Queen/Radiohead combo.
  • Muse have always sounded like Nirvana to some extent, yet nobody seems to have picked up on that.
    • The band themselves have mentioned their earliest incarnation as a copy of Nirvana, and they were also inspired by Rage Against The Machine. These influences can be seen on their Battle Of The Bands 1994 performance. The band have noted at least once that "OK Computer" inspired them in a big way, which is probably why they abandoned most of the songs on their 1997 demo tape within only a few months.
• How the hell did Matt manage to sing so high on Micro Cuts? Don't assume it's wrong, it sounds awesome, but HOLY FUCK. Did he get an elephant to stand on his testicles or something? It's unlikely the average woman would be able to sing that high.
  • Matt's vocal cords are quite a bit smaller than an average man's; hence, he is able to reach higher notes than the average man. There may have been some studio trickery, but when he did it live... so it may just be that he's awesome.
    • It goes beyond that: Bellamy actually told an interviewer that a doctor once examined him, and proclaimed that he has the vocal cords of a woman.
    • Matt previously noted that Futurism was too hard to sing live, hence only performing it once in the 'Origin' period. He knew it would be a fan favorite, and hence left it off the album. When the band finally brought it back a year or two ago, to astonishment from fans...and proceeded to nail it. His years of improved vocals clearly helped. :D
• If Matt has Elmuh Fudd Syndwome while speaking, how come it doesn't afflict him while singing? Is it the speed he delivers it that allows him to have time to articulate? Or is it something else?
• What is happening to the narrator in "Space Dementia"? what?!?
  • Common assumptions like the one from the Nightmare Fuel page says it's possibly an Eldritch Abomination, given that the song could likely about being crazy from being in space for too long.
    • Possibly. We still have barely the vaguest idea.