Ode to Muse, Similar Tastes, and General Essence

If you can't wait till September the 14th to get your Muse fix, go here and check out the sound of their new out-of-this-world album, The Resistance. It's so beautiful, it will rob you of your senses for a bit. Trust me. It is that beautiful!

Lake Como is the place where the incomparable Italian author Alessandro Manzoni washed his words and gave re-birth to Dante's Italian. Lake Como is also the place where Muse recorded its latest album, The Resistance which will be released next Tuesday, the 14th, is a very much anticipated experience for me. Their new track, "Uprising," was already released a couple of days ago on iTunes and if you haven't already gotten it, make sure to do so.
It's a transformative piece.

I can always tell if I'm seeing a band playing instruments they learned how to play in their parents' garage soon after dropping out of college. By the same token, it doesn't take a big music connoisseur to discern real talent on the stage. That's how Matt Bellamy and co. are on stage. The way they handle their respective musical instruments on the stage almost makes you want to weep. To me, the experience of watching them live was exactly like the one I had when seeing a live production of Puccini's Tourandot, which come to think of it also happened around the same time in 2004.
Man, what a year!

I often talk about the year being a game-changer for me. The reason why it was so is mostly due to the art I experienced and the artists I got to meet and intimately know. I firmly believe that when we don't deny ourselves of the kind of art towards which we naturally and experientially gravitate, great things are bound to happen. The reason why this is so, in my view, is that this same art expedites a myriad of other self-empowering things. Art, after all, isn't just about entertainment. It's primarily about didactic experiences.

Enter, Muse.

Muse is not an act you encounter often. As an avid music follower and supporter I cannot think of one single experience that even mildly compares to seeing these musicians practicing their art live on stage. I often talk about experiences that manage to evoke a 'sense of visitation' as Henry James put it. Muse's music does that for me. I'm reminded of a very lovely dinner I had a few weeks ago while visiting in another country. We dined on a balcony facing the inspiring lights of the big metropolis. The music on the background was Muse's album Black Holes and Revelations and, more specifically, the long and shorter versions of the mind-blowing track "Map of the Problematique." There is no better way than music to journal an experience, folks. Not for me, at least. And very few acts have this kind of experience-recording power. Ergo, my interest in the art that Muse creates is fundamentally personal.

This summer I reconnected with a favorite person from my not-so-distant past. One of our high-frequency conversations revolved around Muse, their incomparable sound, and how it encompasses so much. A number of other art signs were discussed at length as we spent tens of hours discussing the importance of the arts and how what we lean towards artistically reveals much about a person's general essence. A few months ago I did a videocast about tastes and why we like the things we like. The core message of this videocast states that we like what we like mostly out of fundamental narcissism. We tend to like that in which we see ourselves and our basic aesthetics reflected.

I often reference my first Muse concert here. It happened in 2004 and, as a result, that whole year was radically morphed into a most unique and transformative time for me. I have always surrounded myself in life with artists. It was, however, during that year that I finally got it cognitively what it meant to be utterly helpless when it came to controlling my own creative impulses. When I am in the presence of art, my true nature can't help but jump out and the sense of yes I tend to feel out of genetics and acquired experience becomes a dominant trait.

It's quite a thing to live during those moments when your general essence is utterly espoused and what expedites such moments is certain art forms. And Muse did this back in 2004. And it does it with their new albums, The Resistance. Their track "Uprising" which can now be purchased on iTunes, has a strength of sound that I have not sensed in a long time. I don't know what Matt Bellamy eats but I sure hope he keeps this same diet for a long time to come. Their music is the stuff of inspiration, it's the stuff that's engendered not only out of true artistic expertise. It's mostly born out of artistic genius. Whoever the muse it to whom they pay tribute, one thing is certain, the momentum of Muse is spectacular.

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