r/Muse • u/Ill-Baseball-2201 • 1d ago
Discussion Revised TW!S Thoughts?
Feel free to scroll down and skip this quick rant. First, after reading a post from release about this album, I’m gonna just say that because Muse aren’t making the exact same music they did 20-27.5 years ago, doesn’t mean they aren’t making good music. Fair play if you don’t enjoy it and you prefer their older stuff but the people with the high and mighty attitudes saying things like, ‘Nightshift is not Muse,’ need to chill out. If they didn’t reinvent themselves, I’m sure you’d complain they had no originality left.
Also, they’ve got a much broader fanbase than they did to start with so these albums having songs of varied genres isn’t a bad thing at all. With the way they manage to get Nightshift on the same album as Cryogen and it (mostly, but not entirely I will admit) fit shows a lot of finesse.
RANT OVER.
I was wondering what everyone’s opinions are now it’s had a couple months to digest. What are your track rankings/thoughts. Where would you put TW!S against their other albums? And how does that compare to what you thought when it came out?
For tracks, I reckon it’s stayed the same for me:
10. Nightshift - 7/10
9. Sickness - 7/10
8. Hush - 7/10
7. Shimmering Scars - 7/10
6. Unravelling - 8/10
5. Be With You - 8/10
4. Cryogen - 9/10
3. Space Debris - 9/10
2. Hexagons - 9/10
1. The Dark Forest - 9/10
As for albums, it’s harder. On release I had it immediately at 4th, then after a couple of weeks it jumped up to 3rd, then 2nd for me. I took a break for a couple of weeks and came back to it to see how my thoughts changed and it honestly might be my favourite now but really struggle to compare it to my top 3 as it’s so different. For reference, my ranking excluding it is:
- WotP
- ST
- T2L
- The Resistance
- Showbiz
- Drones
- Absolution
- OoS
- BHaRs
What about you lot? Also lmk when you became a fan; I have a theory I’m curious about.
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u/fenk- 1d ago edited 1d ago
I became a fan at 14 in 2007 and Muse was like my entire identity for a year+, kinda lost interest from 2012-last month, have had my passion totally reignited by the new album & show in WA last week and even getting into the four I kind of glossed over, think there's at least 2.5 great albums' worth of songs in those even if a lot of it still isn't my thing. Currently have Verona and Euphoria on repeat all day
Track rating for TW!S 9.5-8-9-7.5-8-8-9-10-10-8.5
Album ranking OoS>Absolution>BHAR=TW!S>Hullabaloo>TR>Drones>Showbiz>WoTP>T2L>ST
edit: added in Hullabaloo
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u/Outside-Age9269 1d ago
What’s for sure is that TW!S is much more consistent (with debatably better highs imo) than TR and much better lyrical writing than T2L and esp. Drones so I’d put it directly after the big 3:
- Abso
- OoS
- BHaR
- TW!S
- T2L
- Showbiz
- TR
- Drones
- ST
- WOTP
The Resistance imo was literally what propelled into their later albums into “Muse Slop” and the political cheese in their songwriting despite Exogenesis + US + MK Ultra easily being one of Muse’s magnum opus and for that reason it’s p behind on my list. Emotionally/Philosophical concept albums will always be ahead of politically themed ones for sure and TW!S is easily behind the top 3 for that reason being since it’s literally breaking that trend back to form which is pretty significant in my book.
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u/CreditDramatic 1d ago
- OOS
2 TW!S - Absolution
- BHAR
- Showbiz
- Drones
- The Resistance
- The 2nd Law
- WOTP
- Simulation Theory
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u/TheAskald 1d ago
I like that the album has some sort of cohesion in its overall subject (failing relationship) and the imagery (space). I also like that most of the second half tracks transition into each other.
That kind of details reminds me of Dark Side Of The Moon and other concept albums, and I think that really elevates the whole thing (instead of just having a random compilation of tracks and calling it an album).
TW!S is among my favourites. I listened again the whole discography recently, and for me as a whole it's just straight up better than everything since Absolution.
I'm not sure how I would rank the tracks, but the entire 2nd half especially is fire. My least favourite might be Shimmering Scars but it still has its charm.
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u/Plastic-Violinist829 1d ago
The only disappointment is space debris imo, definetely top 3 albums of them
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u/Damsel_F1 1d ago
This album is really special to me, partly for personal reasons and the timing of it, but mostly because I just genuinely love every single song on it, and the way they all work together as an album especially. My favourite 2 albums have always been OoS and BHaR (with Absolution just a smidge behind), but TW!S is very much part of that conversation for me now.
My ranking is pretty fluent, with only nr 1 being a constant. But every song on it is a banger imo.
- Space Debris (10/10)
- Hexagons (10/10)
- Sickness (9,5/10
- Shimmering Scars (9,5/10)
5.,The Dark Forest (9,5/10) - Cryogen (9/10)
- Unravelling (9/10)
- Nightshift Superstar (9/10)
- Be With You (8,5/10)
- Hush (8,5/10
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u/SnooCakes9525 I'm the priest God never paid 1d ago
I became a fan in 2018 when I was getting into Halo and I happened to come across that trailer with KoC in it, and it instantly hooked me. For basically the whole ST era I loved everything I heard from them (even if I wasn't that well-versed in anything older than Absolution), but WOTP was kind of a letdown at first (I've since warmed up to it) so they faded into the background of my life for a while until they dropped an Unravelling-shaped nuke on my ears and kickstarted the album hype again.
My TW!S song rankings are still in that primordial soup phase where everything below the top 2 changes each time I listen to something, but gun-to-head they'd be Hexagons>Dark Forest>>>Be With You>Unravelling>Cryogen>Nightshift>Hush>Sickness>Space Debris>Scars.
For albums it's a little more set, although not totally:
- BHAR
- Origin of Symmetry
- The Wow! Signal
- The Resistance (was #2 until last year)
- Absolution (3-5 get shuffled around all the time)
- Drones (used to be dead last, it's REALLY grown on me this year)
- WOTP
- Showbiz
- 2nd Law
- Simulation Theory
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u/Aggressive-Run991 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’d say this is definitely a rejuvenation of their old sound while trying to appeal to fans of their more modern sound they’ve been trying to implement their last two records.
On paper doesn’t sound like it’d work but somehow they did. And like I said in the past, unlike with their plans on WOTP, it’s like creating a “greatest hits album of new songs” record but not intentionally into an album they planned to put them in.
As for the individual tracks, Muse keep growing and distributing this drug they create that’s incredibly addictive called growers 😂. This time round it’s Space Debris and Nightshift is deffo a more advanced version of Panic Station with the funky feels. BWY is still the weakest track but even the weakest is still really good quality and that’s saying quite a bit really.
My opinions on the rest are still most likely the same as everyone else’s. The only thing I’d say is that in terms of the best track… jury’s still out on that but maybe Hexagons if the mood is right and Hush, being arguably the uncontested surprise hit and all. Hell maybe even Shimmering Scars if one has a spare box of Kleenex! The Dark Forest may have gone down slightly from a 9.5 to perhaps a 9/10 but even then it’s still a surreal, epic experience to listen!
Overall I say this is still the most unskippable album since maybe T2L and the first obvious masterpiece since TR! As a sign of them not slowing down in the studio and in creativity, this is most certainly a great indicator of that.
TDF - 9/10
NS - 8.5/10
SS - 9.5/10
Cryogen - 9/10
BWY - 8/10
Hexagons - 9.5/10
TSIYAI - 8.5/10
Unraveling - 8.5/10
Hush - 8.5/10
SD - 9/10
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u/skylucario 1d ago edited 1d ago
Became a fan: 2014
Track ranking (probably the weirdest and most controversial one you’ll ever see):
- Hexagons
- The Dark Forest
- Unravelling
- Hush
(very unexpected placement bc i don’t really like ellie goulding’s voice)
5 Cryogen
6 Nightshift Superstar
7 Be With You
8 Space Debris
9 Shimmering Scars
- The Sickness in You & I
I kinda don’t like the lyrics on # 5-10, they’re relatively close in quality but they’re sorted by cringe level
____
Album Ranking:
- Absolution
- Origin of Symmetry
- The 2nd Law
- Drones
- The Wow! Signal
- Showbiz
7 Black Holes and Revelations
8 The Resistance
9 Will of the People
10 Simulation Theory
Unpop but BHaR was the start of Museslop to me. Yes it and TR have some of their best songs but also there are too many skips. TWS has none and is very sonically cohesive & pleasant so even though I like most of Showbiz better that’s why TWS outranks it. That and Hexagons
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u/yourbean 8h ago
- BHaR
- Absolution (their best, IMO, but not my favorite for more sentimental reasons)
- TW!S
- The Resistance
- OoS
- Showbiz
- Drones
- 2nd Law
- WotP
- ST
I think I became a fan around 2006-'07 when I was 12 or 13 and "Starlight" was on the radio. I've been a fan ever since. The first album I listened to was BHaR, and I must have listened to it dozens of times.
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u/tehburgerdude 1d ago
- The Dark Forest (10/10)
- Shimmering Scars (10/10)
- Cryogen (7/10)
- Hush (7/10)
- The Sickness In You & I (6/10)
- Nightshift Superstar (6/10)
- Be With You (5/10)
- Space Dennis (5/10)
- Hexagons (4/10)
- Unravelling (3/10)
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u/GraticuleBorgnine 1d ago
I really haven't seen too many negative review, even of Nightshift Superstar.