The 2nd Law

Occupation

• Vocals, guitar: Matthew Bellamy
• Bass: Christopher Wolstenholme
• Drums: Dominic Howard

The 2nd Law is the sixth studio album by English alternative rock band Muse, which was released in most countries on 28 September 2012, and with only a few exceptions on October 1 to 3.

• 4.1 reviews
• 4.2 Commercial success

Background and development

Muse began in late September 2011 in London with the recording of their sixth studio album. On 18 October 2011, the manager of the band, Anthony Addis, announced that this will be released in October 2012.

On December 14, 2011 said bassist Wolstenholme in an interview with Kerrang! That the next album will something radically different from the previous releases. He also said that it felt to as pull the tape with their sixth album a line under a certain era of her career. In another interview, Wolstenholme said that the band have experimented a lot with the music and the sound of this and give the album a certain freshness. Muse Spokesman Tom Kirk announced via his Twitter account that the composer David Campbell, who has also worked with artists such as Radiohead, Paul McCartney, Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, Beck and Adele, songwriter Matthew Bellamy 'll help when composing. In the April 2012 issue of NME interview with Bellamy was published, in which he explained that the new album elements of electronic music with influences from bands such as the French house duo Justice, or the electro-rock group Does It Offend You, Yeah? have. On June 6, 2012 published Muse the trailer for The 2nd Law with a countdown on the band's website, which provided for a release on September 17. The trailer, which contained dubstep elements, sparked broad spectrum of reactions from the fans. On August 9, the song The 2nd Law was for fans who pre-ordered the album: put Unsustainable availability, a day later, the publication was followed on the YouTube channel of the band. From 24 September, the album in many countries was offered to the stream.

The name "The 2nd Law " refers to the second law of thermodynamics, which in the song The 2nd Law: Unsustainable is quoted as saying:

After in "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable " in this quote the following breakdown adds a distorted voice:

Thus, a personal background is produced and the audience even directly addressed in a subtle way.

Songwriting

The song contains Madness by NME influences of I Want to Break Free by Queen and David Bowie's album Scary Monsters ( and Super Creeps ). Bellamy also said that he had received from the dubstep artist Skrillex when writing The 2nd Law: Unsustainable was affected. Also, Follow Me is a song about his then unborn son, Bingham Bellamy. In the intro of the song he even used the child's heartbeat recorded by smartphone shortly before birth. The song was produced by the band Nero and contains numerous electronic job. Chris Wolstenholme wrote on The 2nd Law for the first time and sang songs for Muse in this also: In Save Me and Liquid State, he describes his battle with alcohol.

Publication

Artwork

The cover of The 2nd Law is a map of the connections of the human brain and was created by the Human Connectome Project. On September 21, 2012, the artwork was used as an online project. The more fans themselves joined the project, the more connections were located in the brain. When the picture was finished, and yet more and more people were added, the song The 2nd Law has been published Isolated system.

Singles

Survival was released as the first single on June 27, 2012. The song was first introduced along with the intro Prelude in BBC Radio. The song served as the official song of the Summer Olympic Games in 2012.

Madness was announced as the second single in an interview with NME. The song was originally intended to be heard on 20 August on BBC Radio 1 for the first time, but by an earlier release in South Korea it was earlier available online.

When multiple discs, which were allegedly sent to radio stations, were offered for sale on eBay, Follow Me was announced as the third single. The official video was released on Muse YouTube channel on November 1, 2012.

Supremacy was announced on January 16, 2013, together with the appearance of the video to the song as the fourth single.

Tour

Muse announced on June 7, 2012 to a European tour, the first leg of The 2nd Law tour. Shortly after, the announcement of a North American tour. The first concert took place on August 12, 2012, the last is expected to be on 14 September 2013. The tour includes a total of 94 appearances, including 51 in Europe, four in Asia, 38 in North America and one in South America. At the concerts all the songs from the new album, the better-known songs from the older albums and Sign o 'the Times played a Prince cover.

Chris Wolstenholme used in live performances of the song " Madness", a combination of Misa Kitara (MIDI controller in the form of a guitar) and an electric bass to quickly switch between the predominantly influenced by the synthesizer part of the song and the subsequent rockier part. At concerts of "The 2nd Law " tour from an existing screens pyramid is moved across the stage.

Success

Reviews

The 2nd Law received by music critics mostly positive reviews. Metacritic calculated from 28 reviews from different publishers an average score of 70 out of 100. This corresponds to " generally favorable reviews". Ian Winwood, writer for the BBC, gave the album a good rating and wrote that Muse may show up in any form they please. Allmusic awarded 3 of 5 stars and said that her penchant for dubstep and dance on songs like Madness or Follow Me likely sound like remixes as original songs. While pieces like these definitely have the backbone of a song by Muse, but the production that builds up it, feels strange.

The album was nominated at the Grammy Awards 2013 in the category " Best Rock Album". The song Madness was nominated in the category " Best Rock Song". However, Muse did not win any of these prizes.

The 2nd Law was ranked 46 of the 50 best albums of 2012 in the list of Rolling Stone.

Commercial success

The album was sold 475,000 since its release times. With 101,000 sales in the U.S. within the first week after the publication of The 2nd Law debuted at # 2 on the Billboard 200. This is the most successful chart entry in the U.S. the band's career, although the previous album The Resistance has sold more often. Even at No. 2, the album debuted in Germany, Australia, Ireland, Korea and Spain. In a total of 13 countries, the album immediately reached first place in the UK it was thus the fourth album by Muse, which managed this. From the album 1.4 million copies were sold worldwide and it was thus the 26th best selling album of 2012.

Film Music

The published in June 2013 horror film World War Z contains some sequences from the album. It will play multiple songs in sections.

Title list

Swell

• Album ( rock )
• Album ( Alternative Rock )
• Album in 2012
• Number-one album
• Muse ( band )