For those of you who remember that Muse is still a thing, well, they’re back.
I guess all our prayers were finally answered because it was revealed last week that Muse were chosen as The British Band to represent all of our different musical tastes, diversity, cultural relevance and class to the rest of the world at the London Olympics this month with their inspirational track ‘Survival’.
And why not?
I mean who better to pick to soundtrack your entire games and TV coverage for a month, Olympic organisers, than a band who’s best known for their subtlety, song writing skill and unending humility.
Oh wait.
‘Survival’ is the first song from the band since their last album The Resistance in 2009 that had something to do with alien invasions and political uprisings or some shit. Anyway in fairness to them, that album was probably not as terrible as I remember it but in between the 15 minute instrumentals, Queen aping solos and the prog rock insanity, I think I must have fallen asleep and missed all of the good bits that NME were going on about.
Well new song ‘Survival’ manages to come so dangerously close to stealing from the Queen sound and pomp that I’m almost surprised Brian May didn’t scream out plagiarism at the top of his voice, shaking his fists up at the gods who would allow such a thing to happen. What’s that you say? He liked their last Queen inspired album? Well then I guess if it’s okay with Brian May, it’s okay by me. And with lyrics like: “I’m gonna win/Yes, I’m gonna win/I’ll light the fuse/And I’ll never lose/ And I choose to survive”. Honestly how could anyone not like this song?
What with the band having described the song as possessing “a sense of conviction and determination to win” and that it already has a ringing endorsement from tastemakers NME (who, ironically in their endorsement, ranted about the fact that the Muse song is associated with something as annoying as the Olympics – err, pot calling the kettle black?), by simple calculation this song must therefore be one of the greatest, most awe-inspiring songs ever written, a song that will surely propel team GB to win (and never lose) everything at any cost.
Anyway who’s to say the London Olympic organisers are wrong? Well, apart from the media, the general public and everyone in between of course, but honestly since Paul McCartney and Blur have been tapped to play the ceremonies and songs by the Clash and Sex Pistols are to be featured, why not include Muse to balance out the excess of good quality? Next you’ll be saying there were rumours that the Spice Girls had been considered to perform too.
Who knows, when the song plays at the games, it might just make us long for the Whitney Houstons and Gloria Estefans of the Olympic Games or even that song Bjork did in Athens when her dress covered the whole stadium. Yeah. At least that was interesting.
Below is the song for those who have somehow escaped the magic for this long. What do you make of it as the official Olympic song? Is ‘Survival’ the song to inspire a nation? Is this the best that we can be or do we just enjoy setting the bar quite low?
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