Putting whatever personal opinions you have of Muse to one side just for one brief moment, it would be difficult for anyone to accuse them of being mundane.
Since their inception Matt Bellamy and co. have steadily evolved from vehement searing guitar rock and roll in breakthrough showstopper ‘Origin of Symmetry’, lurching ever closer to mellower and more radio friendly waters right up until 2009’s oddity ‘The Resistance’, never conforming merely to just one genre and splitting both critics and fans into two distinct camps along the way.
Yet somehow, despite the band being the archetypal poster child for the phrase ‘expect the unexpected’, their new track must once again be hailed as their most eccentric effort to date.
Announced as the official song of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the very title,‘Survival’, in itself evokes the connotations that make it a promoter’s dream. Hope. Strength. Belief. Courage. And any other such clichéd phrases that seem to surface on billboards adorned with icy-stared British athletes around this time every four years.
Commencing with a predictably grandiose cacophony of triumphant piano, violin and haunting choir backing vocals befitting of the BBC’s opening credits for the event itself, the sense that something suitably epic is looming creeps over the listener. So quite why Bellamy felt it an astute decision to abruptly convert proceedings to a finger clicking show tune that sounds like the cast of Glee going to town on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ is anyone’s guess.
But as if it was ever in doubt, when the frontman’s palpable vocals eventually do enter the fray all the pieces of this ludicrous jigsaw fall into place and we gain some perspective of what the track is out to achieve.
Whether Muse wrote this song with the Games specifically in mind or if it was always in the works for upcoming album ‘The 2nd Law’ is unclear, but the lyrics seem to suggest they were always hopeful of the former. Against a backdrop of drummer Dom Howard’s thunderous beat and operatic backing vocals, Bellamy drives to a dramatic crescendo claiming: ‘Race, life’s a race / And I am gonna win / Yes, I am gonna win’. And the simple but appropriate closing mantra destined to soundtrack many a boxing montage during the tournament: ‘Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! / Win! Win! Win! Win!’
All this before climaxing in a blaze of inspirational falsetto glory.
Love it or loathe it, this slice of wonderful lunacy will soon be utterly inescapable as the European Championships wind to a close and Olympic fever tightens its stranglehold on the nation.
Coming to a montage, title sequence, highlights package, stadium and maybe even radio near you.
