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Dec 5, 2012From its atmospheric nineties leanings to Bellamy's consistently on-the-mark channeling of Bono, it's not too hard to imagine The 2nd Law having a similar legacy ten or twenty years down the road: not a great album, but an adventurous one.
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Sep 28, 2012The array of musical styles on show across The 2nd Law means that, like many of this band's past albums, it doesn't entirely coalesce into a seamless collection of songs... But when this album works, it works well.
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Oct 1, 2012Muse fans will have a hard time being disappointed by "The 2nd Law," and rookies have a new perfect place to jump in.
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Oct 3, 2012A concept album based on the second law of thermodynamics would likely be awful if done by Radiohead or Coldplay, but Muse nails it on The 2nd Law, creating a tale about survival within an imploding society.
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Sep 27, 2012Typically rich, but this time, a playful outing.
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Sep 27, 2012The 2nd Law is seriously fun.
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Kerrang!Oct 29, 2012Does this all meld together into the cohesive whole of a perfect album? Well, no, not really. But does The 2nd Law represent a band whose only limitations seem to be the high ceiling of their collective imagination? The answer here is an emphatic yes. [6 Oct 2012, p.52]
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Oct 2, 2012This is a far funnier (and funkier) effort than 2009's "The Resistance," which handled similar themes with a glum sobriety.
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MojoOct 22, 2012Muse and David Campbell's melodramatic arrangements occasionally raise a smile, but if you like your rock symphonic and your vocals histrionic, The 2nd Law delivers. [Nov 2012, p.87]
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Oct 1, 2012What Muse have done is re-establish themselves as a respected British institution by being fun.
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Q MagazineSep 28, 2012The real surprises come when they sound relaxed, even delicate. [Oct 2012, p.92]
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Oct 18, 2012It's quite good.
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Oct 2, 2012[Muse] is their most expansive and varied yet, filling out a go-to mix of Queen boom and Radiohead gloom with disco Bowie, Eighties U2, metal, dubstep and enough strings to support a suspension bridge.
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Oct 2, 2012The scale [on The 2nd Law] is such that you have to stand back in a kind of addled awe. Much in the same way that you might regard a 75ft-high luminous pink pissing flamingo water feature; you have to admire the size of the ambition and the craftsmanship, even if it's not something you'd necessarily want at your own house.
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Sep 27, 2012No one goes to see a blockbuster for its profundity and deep characterisation. They go for the stunts and the special effects, both of which The 2nd Law delivers.
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Oct 1, 2012The none-more-Nietzschean, grandiose-apocalyptic mood continues through the utterly splendid Olympic theme "Survival", with its über-ELO arrangement, and "Animals", with its sound effects of an angry, riotous mob.
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Oct 11, 2012Muse's rather absurd spaceship may be welded together from bits of other acts--but it still flies.
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UncutSep 28, 2012Muse redeem high-camp absurdity with a genius for sumptuous arrangements, mighty pop hooks and irresistible melodrama. [Nov 2012, p.79]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 287 out of 408
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Mixed: 77 out of 408
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Negative: 44 out of 408
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Oct 2, 2012
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Oct 9, 2012
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Oct 2, 2012