‘Wow!’ sums it up!! I bought The Wow! Signal on release day, having been looking forward to what Muse would do next after their brilliant yet irritating album Will of the People, which I compared to a giant marshmallow! I still enjoy the album, but I hoped their follow-up would be different.

I’d heard a few songs which had already been released, and liked them – I’m a fan of ‘old Muse’, so nothing that they bring out is going to match up to their first trio of albums, but I was intrigued and somewhat relieved that they finally swapped dystopian nightmares and sinister conspiracies for space themes and personal anguish found on earlier albums. The title of the album refers to a mysterious radio signal detected in 1977, which possibly indicated extraterrestrial life. The computer printout from this time is actually reproduced in the album booklet. Yes, I still like getting CDs and poring over the booklet, reading the lyrics and appreciating the artwork.

My top track, after three listens of the album, is opener ‘The Dark Forest’. They throw everything at it – orchestra, electronics, prog guitars, creepy atmospheric sounds, Latin chants – and I love it. ‘Cryogen’ is another stand-out track. It has a complicated riff which is reminiscent of ‘Plug-In Baby’. Rhyming ‘cryogen’ with ‘cry again’ and ‘nitrogen’ is kind of cringe, but all other elements are brilliant so it doesn’t matter. The most surprising song on the album is ‘Hush’, which features Ellie Goulding. I don’t recall Muse ever having a guest singer on an album, so this was an interesting decision and it paid off. I like all the other songs on the album, however two of them seem a little weaker to me: ‘Nightshift Superstar’ (which sounds to me like Daft Punk) is catchy with a great bassline but is too shiny and lightweight compared to the other songs; and the closing song ‘Space Debris’ is a heartfelt ballad but not memorable enough and doesn’t compare well to previous album closers. Ask me after several more listens though and I could be telling you it’s one of my favourites.

I’m still missing a couple of Muse trademarks. I can only hear piano on two of the tracks, and it’s an accompaniment, rather than the virtuoso crashing chords and rapid arpeggios that could be main features. I also like it when the songs veer off into other directions, or are extended into ridiculous epics. There was nothing that surprised me very much, other than ‘Hush’ and ‘The Dark Forest’. I can’t complain the album wasn’t heavy enough, as most of the songs featured monstrous riffs and amazing drums. The band are sounding fantastic. Well done, Matt, Dom and Chris – congratulations on your tenth studio album!