Resistance is useless! (Well, not really…)

Not many rock gods hail from seaside resorts in Southern England, but Muse, from sunny Teignmouth, have returned with their fifth album proper, The Resistance.

Following on a fairly stellar trajectory from the magnificent launch-pad of Showbiz, they reached the outer limits on their last release, Blackholes and Revelations. The question was, where would they go from here?

Unsurprisingly, they have headed into hyperspace with this new release, a confident musical journey and, while the lyrics delve into more earthly concerns – geo-political consciousness, conspiracy theories, raging against the machine – that on paper look like a flimsy David Icke manifesto and don’t bear too much consideration, the right thing to do is just follow Matt Bellamy’s lead and leap into the void with your eyes wide open.

Still taking style points from the classicism of Queen and the vision of Rush, but with an overwhelming pop sensibility, The Resistance leads off with Uprising, a rousing, rolling juggernought, before the title track arrives, featuring The Edge’s piano making a guest appearance. Undisclosed Desires is Depeche Mode imbibed with a classical thread, and then things just start getting silly, albeit in the best possible way.

United States of Eurasia. Terrible title, too general a sentiment, great song. Starting as a piano lament, it kicks its We Are The Champions heels just over a minute in, and just runs with that. It’s not going to topple governments or make sheep explode at 20 paces, it just rocks daftly and melodically thoughout, towards it’s Chopin-inspired outro (I kid you not).

From there to the closer, the three-part symphonic opus, Exogenesis, there’s great progish pop, a slightly misguided Supergrass moment on I Belong To You that could have been better placed on a B-side, and some hurtlingly huge riffs that will be magnificent in arenas across the globe when they go out on tour.

Exogenesis’ massive orchestration and sci-fi soundtrack overtones blend perfectly with Matt’s falsetto delivery. I’ve no idea what it’s about, but it’s a modern day Pink Floyd masterpiece, and that’s no bad thing in my book.

Set to road-test the new material on that other spaced invasion, U2’s 360 tour, Muse have delivered another set that will develop a second life on stage, and solidify the new songs within their already packed catalogue of solar-system-bestriding anthems.

What a ride.