People everywhere* have been long awaiting the arrival of Muse’s new album, The Resistance, and today, the album went on sale in the U.S.  I bought it first chance I could this morning (I swear to God, the Homer’s clerk knows me as “the guy who likes Muse”).

The album opens with “Uprising”, which I think could be this album’s “Knights of Cydonia”—not that it’s a six-plus-minute anthem, but because it’s a pretty decent song, until they perform it live, at which point it makes people shit pure awesomeness into their pants (see what they did with it on a tiny stage this weekend at the VMAs if you don’t believe me).

It’s not until “Unnatural Selection” and “MK Ultra” that singer/guitarist/pianist/songwriter/lady-pleaser Matt Bellamy really unleashes, showing us he hasn’t forgotten how to write songs like “New Born”, “Citizen Erased” and “Stockholm Syndrome”.

The album’s weakest point came with the third track, “Undisclosed Desires”, which honest to God, opened more like a Rihanna song than a Muse song.  It gets better, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Bellamy had been temporarily replaced by a domestic abuse victim.

The album closes with, as rumored, a 13-minute, three-part symphony, which was much more well-done than I thought it would be.

Overall: 8.5/10.  I never expected this to be Muse’s best album, but it was really solid, and I look forward to seeing a lot of these songs performed where Muse really shines, in front of a live audience.

*mostly me