The 2nd Law
The 2nd Law is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Muse. It was first released on 28 September 2012 in Europe, 1 October 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 2 October 2012 in North America through Warner Bros. Records and the band's own Helium-3 imprint. Recording took place in studios between London and Los Angeles County, beginning in October 2011 and ending in August 2012. The 2nd Law was Muse's second album to be solely self-produced, following The Resistance. It features additional musicians that performed brass, strings, and choir vocals.
The 2nd Law is a concept album about a deteriorating planet that its inhabitants can no longer live on. Major lyrical themes include societal collapse, totalitarianism, and the second law of thermodynamics, which the title references. Musically, the band chose to experiment significantly and create a sound that was distinct from their previous records. The album incorporates art rock, progressive rock, and electronic music with Muse's traditional alternative rock style. Acts such as Queen, David Bowie, and Skrillex were also key influences. The cover art features a map of the human brain's pathways, which was taken from the Human Connectome Project.
Five singles were released to promote the album: "Survival", "Madness", "Follow Me", "Supremacy", and "Panic Station". "Survival" had been chosen as the official song for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, "Madness" became an international hit, most notably topping the Billboard Alternative Songs chart for a record-breaking 19 weeks, and "Supremacy" was performed live to begin the 2013 Brit Awards. The track "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" was included in the 2013 movie World War Z. The 2nd Law received positive reviews from critics and performed well commercially; it was a top ten-charting album in 31 countries and a number one album in 13 countries. For its sales figures, it was certified platinum in four countries, including the United Kingdom, and triple-platinum in France. At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, the album was nominated for Best Rock Album and "Madness" was nominated for Best Rock Song. "Panic Station" was later nominated for Best Rock Song at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards the following year., The 2nd Law has sold over 1.6 million copies worldwide.
Background and recording
The 2nd Law was primarily recorded at AIR Studios in London, England and EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, California, with additional recording taking place at Shangri La Studios in Malibu, California and Capitol Studios in Hollywood. In an interview with Billboard on 18 October 2011, the band's manager Anthony Addis revealed that Muse had begun recording their sixth album in London and that he expected it to be released by October 2012. Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme had stated in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that they had aimed to begin recording The 2nd Law in either September or October 2011. During the recording of the album, band frontman Matt Bellamy jokingly described the album as a "Christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, with some ambient rebellious dubstep and face-melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia" on his Twitter account.In an interview with Kerrang! on 14 December 2011, Wolstenholme stated that the next Muse album would be "something radically different" from their prior releases. He also said that it felt as if the band were "drawing a line under a certain period" of their career with their sixth album. In another interview Chris mentioned that the band had experimented with music and sounds in particular. It was revealed via Muse's publicist Tom Kirk on his Twitter account that composer David Campbell was helping the band compose the album. In an interview in the April 2012 issue of NME, Bellamy said that the band were set to include elements of electronic music, with influences coming from acts such as French house duo Justice and UK dance-punk group Does It Offend You, Yeah?.
Composition
The 2nd Law has been described by The Arts Desk as a concept album with main themes of "chaos, control, societal collapse and totalitarianism". The iTunes review of the album similarly described it as a concept album telling the story of "a resource-strapped planet that can no longer support its inhabitants". The music of The 2nd Law has been described as art rock, alternative rock, progressive rock, and electronic music. The album's first track, "Supremacy", has been compared to James Bond theme songs. "Madness", according to NME, features influences which draw from Queen's "I Want to Break Free" and David Bowie's Scary Monsters album. Instead of using a bass guitar for the song, Wolstenholme opted to use a Misa Kitara, a digital MIDI controller, to create the song's main bass riff. "Panic Station", the third track, has been noted as a funk rock song and features collaborations from people who had worked on Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". It also includes explicit lyrics, making The 2nd Law Muse's first album to feature the Parental Advisory label.Bellamy stated that dubstep producer Skrillex was an influence when writing one of the final two tracks on the album – "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable". He also stated that the song "Follow Me" was written about his newborn son, Bingham Bellamy. The song was produced by electronic music trio Nero. Bassist Chris Wolstenholme wrote two songs for the album about his battle with alcoholism – "Save Me" and "Liquid State" – and provided lead vocals on both tracks, thus marking the first time Wolstenholme sang lead vocals on a Muse song. Bellamy revealed that during the recording of The 2nd Law he was reading the novel World War Z, which became a major influence on the album, especially the tracks "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" and "Survival". "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" was featured in the film adaptation of the novel.
Packaging
The name "The 2nd Law" references the second law of thermodynamics, which is quoted in the track "Unsustainable" as follows:All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases. In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases. Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted, and useless. New energy cannot be created and high-grade energy are being destroyed. An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable.
The album's cover art, taken from the Human Connectome Project, represents the map of the human brain's pathways, "tracking the circuits in our heads and how we process information with bright, neon colors."
The artwork was subsequently used by Muse in a social Connectome Project on 21 September 2012. As more fans joined the online project, the album art was built, representing the network of the neurons within the brain. As the album art branched and more fans joined the network, incremental segments of the album track "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" were released.
The album was released as a digital download, CD, CD+DVD, and vinyl. A deluxe edition box set of The 2nd Law included a CD, DVD, double vinyl and three posters.
Promotion
On 6 June 2012, Muse released a trailer for The 2nd Law with a countdown on the band's website suggesting a 17 September release date. The trailer, which included dubstep elements, was met with mixed reactions from fans. "Survival" was released as the album's first single on 27 June 2012 and premiered on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show, along with the song's counterpart intro, "Prelude". The song served as the official song of the London 2012 Olympic Games and peaked at number 22 on the UK Singles Chart.It was revealed by the band in an interview with NME magazine that "Madness" would be released as the second single. Released on 20 August, it was announced that the song would make its world premiere on BBC Radio 1 at 19:30 BST, but the track was leaked online beforehand, due to an unintentional early release in South Korea. The official music video for the song was uploaded on 5 September to the band's YouTube channel. The song had significant chart performance by peaking in the top 40 in several countries. It has peaked at number 25 in the UK, as well as number 45 in the Billboard Hot 100, making "Madness" the band's second-highest-charting song in the US, behind "Uprising". The song was also notable for topping the Billboard Alternative Songs chart for a cumulative amount of nineteen weeks, making it the longest-running number-one song on the chart. The previous record was eighteen weeks, held by the Foo Fighters with their song "The Pretender". The song has been certified platinum by the FIMI in Italy and the MC in Canada. The song has also been certified double-platinum by the RIAA in the US for 2,000,000 copies of the song sold.
"Follow Me" was revealed as the third single when several promo CD's allegedly sent to radio stations appeared on eBay. The official lyric video was released on 1 November and the official music video was released on 11 December, both on the band's official YouTube channel. The song failed to chart in the UK, but it ended up charting in Belgium, France, Italy, and Japan. "Supremacy" was released as the fourth single from the album on 25 February 2013. The song gained popularity when it was performed at the beginning of the 2013 Brit Awards. Due to this performance, the song charted and peaked at number 58 on the UK singles chart. The band conducted a competition to produce a music video for "Animals". The winning video was created by Inês Freitas and Miguel Mendes from Portugal. The winning entry was released on 20 March 2013. "Panic Station" was released as the fifth single on 31 May 2013, accompanied by a music video shot during the Japanese dates of The 2nd Law Tour. The music video was released on 22 April 2013 at 10:00 AM PDT on the official Muse YouTube channel. An interactive lyric video for the song was released, as well. The band had previously performed this track, as well as "Madness", on the 6 October 2012 episode of Saturday Night Live. The song failed to chart in the UK, but it peaked at number two on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Furthermore, "Big Freeze" was released in April 2013, but only for French radios and without a commercial release.