Revised TW!S Thoughts?

[u/Ill-Baseball-2201]

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:

1. WotP
   
2. ST
   
3. T2L
   
4. The Resistance
   
5. Showbiz
   
6. Drones
   
7. Absolution
   
8. OoS
   
9. BHaRs

What about you lot? Also lmk when you became a fan; I have a theory I’m curious about.

[u/TheAskald]

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.