How to be awesome

Hello peoples. I know you miss my blog posts, so I'm blogging now at past 1 a.m. when I should be asleep.

Firstly - I learnt a new word today. "Exogenesis", which is also the three-part symphony from Muse's new album, The Resistance. Which you can stream online in full if you're a member of the site. Which is made of absolute awesome, because Muse is awesome per se, and Exogenesis in all its parts is awesome, and the fact that I can listen to their album for free (being 100% Malaysian that I am), is even more awesome.

Now, Exogenesis. It is awesome. Do not argue with me, because I won't listen to you saying that Muse sucks. Muse is awesome and there can be no other argument about it. If you try to argue with me, I'll give you more Muse songs to hear. And if you still don't agree with me, then we're over.

Anyway. The first part: Overture, so's you can know that Part 1 is also the first part cos they labelled it "Overture". It starts off with strings - they use a whole damn orchestra, which isn't very odd to begin with - and you would be fooled into thinking that you're listening to Romantic music or something. Hell, 20th century music sounds even weirder than this. And then on comes the synthesizers, just there in the background, and the urgency. I love Muse songs because they have this build-up, you know? Not like some rock songs that insist on screaming in your face from the first chord. That, my dears, is just not polite. Then on comes Matt's well-known voice, in which he sings in some alien language he obviously made up, but his voice is awesome. And I am lost in the beauty of his falsetto, which is strangely seductive in ways that go against what scientists would tell you about females and the deepness of a man's voice. Huh. Then on - on comes the guitars - rip it, Matt dearest - and I am waiting for the next.

Part 2 starts with the keys of a piano. (Apparently it's Chopin*, although I can't say and I'm probably wrong, because my music teacher tried to avoid giving me Romantic pieces because I sucked badly when it came to putting emotions into my piano-playing. Okay, I'm joking, but still.) It's Matt playing - he trained in classical piano before he went rock - and then on comes that all too familiar voice. He's still singing in that alien language, but There is the Internets for Everything, which means I only have to Google the lyrics. Drums, guitars - here comes the tension again. Hey I can understand what Matt's saying now! Whoo. You must rescue us aaaall! Apocalyptic, Armageddon, end-of-the-world stuff. Probably the world ending like...erm, The Matrix. Lots of those tentacly, noodly machines destroying the world. Hey noodly. Like the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Okay, sidetracked.

Part 3 starts off gentler than 2, which makes sense, because it's Redemption instead of Cross-Pollination now. (Ewwww tentacly meatballs pollinating.) Strings and piano. Hey that sounds familiar. Hmm. I love this part. Yes. Strings and the repeating chords of the piano. Aw. Guitars and drums in the background, Matt's voice - awesomest part is that the strings are playing the main melody, not the guitars. Matt, perhaps Chris as back-up, strings and piano. This is genius. This is Muse. I am in love.

I'm going to buy this album. Not because it's Muse, but because Exogenesis is awesome, and because I've been buying their albums since Absolution. So there.

Have been buying textbooks from Abebooks - cos Amazon overcharges - and so it was some surprise to find the link on The Guardian's site to this. One day, maybe, when I am that free, I'll write something along the lines of How to Avoid Huge Ships. Or I'll end up doing something like this.

* Try Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Dissonance in the orchestra is like rock riffs made classical with the added power of bombast and awesomeness. Add imagination, girl dancing till she collapses dead with blood all over her, pagan rites, and this is better than your standard whiny rocker trying to convince you about his political stance or that his life sucks.