The 2nd Law

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2nd Law
Studio album by Muse

Publication
(s)

September 28, 2012

Label (s) Helium-3 , Warner

Genre (s)

Alternative rock , new prog , electronic rock

running time

53:49

occupation

production

Muse, Nero

chronology
The Resistance
(2009) 		The 2nd Law Drones
(2015)
Single releases
June 27, 2012 Survival
20th August 2012 Madness
October 12, 2012 Follow me
February 25, 2013 (radio) Supremacy

The 2nd law is the sixth studio album of the English alternative rock - band Muse . It was published in most countries on September 28, 2012 and, with a few exceptions, on October 1-3.

Background and origin

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

On December 14, 2011 bassist Wolstenholme told Kerrang! that the next album will be radically different from the previous releases. He also said that it felt like the band was pulling a line under a certain era of their career with their sixth album. In another interview, Wolstenholme said that the band had experimented a lot with the music and the sound and that this gave the album a certain freshness. Muse spokesman Tom Kirk announced via his Twitter account that composer David Campbell , who has worked with artists such as Radiohead , Paul McCartney , Evanescence , Avril Lavigne , Beck and Adele , will help songwriter Matthew Bellamy compose. An interview with Bellamy was published in the April 2012 issue of NME , in which he explained that the new album had 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, Muse released the trailer for The 2nd Law with a countdown on the band's website, which was scheduled for a September 17th release. The trailer, which contained elements of dubstep, provoked different reactions from the fans. On August 9, the song The 2nd Law: Unsustainable was made available for fans who had pre-ordered the album , followed a day later on the band's YouTube channel. From September 24th the album was offered for streaming in many countries.

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

“All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases. Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted, and useless. New energy cannot be created and high-grade energy is being destroyed. An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable. "

“All natural and technical processes take place in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. With all energy conversions, when no energy leaves or is added to a closed system, the entropy increases. Energy changes continuously from concentrated to scattered state, spreads, fades away and becomes useless. New energy cannot be formed and high energy is destroyed. A society geared towards infinite growth is not sustainable. "

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

"You're unsustainable!"

"You are not sustainable!"

Songwriting

The song Madness has to NME effects of I Want to Break Free by Queen and David Bowie's album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and George Michael 's Faith . Bellamy also said he was influenced by dubstep artist Skrillex while writing The 2nd Law: Unsustainable . Plus, Follow Me is a song about his then-unborn son, Bingham Bellamy. In the intro of the song he uses the heartbeat of the child, which was recorded on a smartphone shortly before the birth. The song was produced by the band Nero and contains numerous electronic passages. Chris Wolstenholme wrote songs for Muse for the first time on The 2nd Law and also sang in them: In Save Me and Liquid State he describes his struggle with alcohol.

publication

Artwork

The cover of The 2nd Law is a map of the connections in 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 joined the project, the more connections were drawn in the brain. When the picture was finished and still more and more people were added, the song The 2nd Law: Isolated System was released.

Singles

Survival was released as the first single on June 27, 2012. The song wasfirst introduced on BBC Radioalong with the intro Prelude . The song served as the official song of the 2012 Summer Olympics .

Madness was announced as the second single in an interview with NME . The song was originally scheduled to first appear on BBC Radio 1 on August 20, but an earlier release in South Korea made it available online earlier.

When several CDs allegedly sent to radio stations went up for sale on eBay , Follow Me was announced as the third single. The official video appeared on Muse YouTube channel on November 1, 2012.

Supremacy was announced as the fourth single on January 16, 2013, along with the release of the video for the song.

trip

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

Chris Wolstenholme uses a combination of Misa Kitara (MIDI controller in the form of a guitar) and an electric bass in the live performances of the song "Madness" to quickly switch between the mainly synthesized part of the song and the rockier part that follows. At concerts of the “The 2nd Law” tour, a pyramid consisting of screens is moved across the stage.

success

Average rating
source rating
Metacritic 70/100
reviews
source rating
Allmusic
BBC positive
Digital spy
Entertainment Weekly C +
The Guardian
NME 8/10
The Observer
Pitchfork Media 5.5 / 10
Rolling Stone

Reviews

The 2nd Law received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Metacritic calculated an average score of 70 out of 100 points from 28 reviews from different publishers. This corresponds to "generally positive reviews". Ian Winwood, writer for BBC , also gave the album a good rating, writing that muses can show themselves in any shape they like. Allmusic gave 3 out of 5 stars and said that their penchant for dubstep and dance on songs like Madness or Follow Me sound more like remixes than original songs. Tracks like this definitely have the backbone of a Muse song, but the production that builds around them feels strange.

The album was nominated for the Best Rock Album category at the 2013 Grammy Awards . The song Madness was nominated in the "Best Rock Song" category. However, Muse won neither of these awards.

The 2nd Law was ranked 46th of the 50 Best Albums of 2012 on Rolling Stone's list .

Commercial win

The album has sold 475,000 copies since its release. With 101,000 sales in the US within the first week of its release, The 2nd Law debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 . This is the most successful chart entry in the band's US career, although the previous album The Resistance was sold several times. The album also reached number 2 in Germany, Australia, Ireland, Korea and Spain. The album immediately reached number 1 in a total of 13 countries. In Great Britain , it was Muse's fourth album to achieve this. 1.4 million copies of the album were sold worldwide, making it the 26th best-selling album of 2012.

album

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
2012 The 2nd Law DE2 (15 weeks)
DE 		AT1 (11 weeks)
AT 		CH1 (46 weeks)
CH 		UK1 (33 weeks)
UK 		US2 (38 weeks)
US
First published: September 28, 2012

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
2012 Survival DE87 (2 weeks)
DE 		- CH40 (1 week)
CH 		UK22 (8 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: June 27, 2012
Madness DE67 (5 weeks)
DE 		AT56 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH27 (12 weeks)
CH 		UK25 (11 weeks)
UK 		US56 (29 weeks)
US
First published: August 20, 2012
2013 Supremacy - - CH58 (1 week)
CH 		UK58 (2 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: February 25, 2013

Film music

The science fiction film / thriller World War Z , released in June 2013, contains some sequences from the album. Several music tracks are played in sections.

Track list

# title length
1. Supremacy 4:55
2. Madness 4:39
3. Panic Station 3:03
4th Prelude 0:57
5. Survival 4:17
6th Follow me 3:51
7th Animals 4:23
8th. Explorers 5:48
9. Big Freeze 4:41
10. Save me 5:09
11. Liquid state 3:03
12. The 2nd Law: Unsustainable 3:47
13. The 2nd Law: Isolated System 4:59

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Muse To Begin Recording New Album In September . Gigwise. August 10, 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  2. ↑ Exclusive: Muse Manager Anthony Addis Talks New Album, Touring and the Challenges of Conquering America . Billboard.biz. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  3. ↑ Muse: 'It feels like it's time to do something radically different on our next album' . NME. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  4. ↑ "We spent a lot of time experimenting with a lot of things, with the music and sounds in particular, and I think that's why this album has this kind of freshness to it".
  5. ^ "Matt discusses his score with David Campbell." // Photo by nowherethomas . Instagram. nowherethomas's account. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  6. ^ Poppy Reid: New Muse album set for September - Artists. The Music Network, June 7, 2012; Archived from the original on October 1, 2013 ; Retrieved June 27, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Muse publish trailer for their new album . Rekwired. June 6, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ Fans react to Muse's brostep-tinged trailer for new album 'The 2nd Law' . In: NME . IPC Media . June 6, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ James Montgomery: Muse Move Toward Dubstep In Apocalyptic The 2nd Law Trailer . In: MTV . Viacom . June 6, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  10. ^ Listen to the 2nd Law Online . September 23, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  11. ↑ The 2nd Law (album) . Muse Wiki. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  12. ↑ The 2nd Law - Album Summary - News - Muselive . Muselive.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 2, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muselive.com
  13. ↑ Muse Reveals Skrillex As Major Influence On New Album 'The 2nd Law' . MTV. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  14. ↑ Visions 235 p. 28
  15. ↑ Muse's Chris Wolstenholme on alcohol battle: 'I had to stop or die' . NME. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  16. ↑ Muse Map out the Brain on 'The 2nd Law' Album Art . Rolling Stone. July 30, 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  17. ^ Muse - The 2nd Law - Social Connectome. Connectome.muse.mu, archived from the original on November 14, 2013 ; Retrieved October 2, 2012 .
  18. ^ Muse Launch Social Connectome. Altsounds.com, September 21, 2012, archived from the original on September 23, 2012 ; Retrieved October 2, 2012 .
  19. ↑ New Muse song Survival is the main Olympics song, to premiere today . In: Rekwired . IPC Media . June 27, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  20. ↑ Muse unveil official Olympic song . BBC. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  21. ↑ NME Magazine Interview, July 2012 . NME Magazine. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  22. ↑ MADNESS MONDAY - UPDATE: LEAKED . Muselive.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 21, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muselive.com
  23. ↑ 1st Single Announced // New Album Release Date . Muse's official site. August 2, 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  24. ^ Next Muse Single Confirmed as Follow Me . MuseLive. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  25. ↑ Muse - Follow Me (Lyric Video) . YouTube. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  26. ↑ Supremacy Lyric Video Online Now . Muse. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  27. ↑ NEWS - UK & European Tour Announced . Muse's official site. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  28. ↑ a b The 2nd Law reviews at Metacritic.com . Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  29. ↑ a b Gregory Heaney: The 2nd Law - Muse: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards . AllMusic. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  30. ↑ a b 21:58: Music - Review of Muse - The 2nd Law . BBC. September 28, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  31. ↑ Muse: 'The 2nd Law' - Album review - Music Album Review . Digital spy. September 28, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  32. ↑ Kyle Anderson: The 2nd Law - review - Muse Review | Music Reviews and News . EW.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  33. ↑ Alexis Petridis: Muse: The 2nd Law - review | Music . The Guardian. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  34. ↑ NME Album Reviews - Muse - 'The 2nd Law' . Nme.Com. September 28, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  35. ↑ Kitty Empire: Muse: The 2nd Law - review | Music | The Observer . In: The Guardian . August 23, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  36. ^ Ian Cohen: Muse: The 2nd Law - album review . pitchfork.com. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  37. ↑ Jon Dolan: Review: Muse - The Second Law . In: Rolling Stone . October 2, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  38. ^ Rollingstone.com
  39. ↑ Keith Caulfied: Jay-Z Still Reigns on Billboard 200, Muse and Kid Cudi Bow High . billboard.com, September 23, 2009.
  40. ↑ Dan Lane: The Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Albums Of 2012 revealed! . Official Charts Company. January 2, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  41. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH US
  42. ↑ The Muse in the Official UK Charts (English)