Micro Cuts

I still remember the moment I first heard this track. I was sitting in our apartment in London listening to Origin of Symmetry for the first time reading some book when suddenly these unworldly vocals burst out of the headphones. I sat transfixed. Then I grabbed my sister and said, "Listen to this! It's amazing!" She just said, "Weird" and moved along. I felt like I had just uncovered one of man's great accomplishments and no one would acknowledge it. And no one did until I got home and played it for Charles T. Martin who loved it. We would listen to it loudly and try to sing along with it. In my Miata. With the top down. People in the cars next to us would laugh. I thought they were laughing with us. In retrospect, they probably just thought we were gay (two men in a Miata singing a song in falsetto???!!! What was I thinking????)

Begrudingly, I accept that Muse might sound like Radiohead once in a while. But it's only the vocals in the first couple of albums. The musical structure itself is very different in my mind. Much more metal-influenced. The bass and piano play much more prominent roles in Muse's music and they haven't wrapped themselves in a disgusting cloak of technology like Radiohead has. Thus, to me, Radiohead's later albums feel ice cold, whereas Muse feels warmer.

Micro Cuts is so odd too, what with the strange little outro at the end with the bass bouncing between speakers. It really is totally different from the rest of the song. I will say that the two loud guitar jabs pre-chorus do seem lifted from Creep now that I think about it.

Ticket to Ride Europe is where it's at. It's so much more fun to butcher the names (I'm building to Effluvium).