Alpha species

Muse have just released their new album, The 2nd Law, whose name is a reference to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. I must say I was positively surprised, after listening to so many negative critics. Shame on me for doubting Muse’s talent.

The new songs bring along whole new electronic effects while keeping some of their previous ground stones, namely Bellamy’s beautiful vocals and piano performances. Creativity and uniqueness were not forgotten; how often do you listen to a physics’ law description in a song?

But all of this wouldn’t make up a great album, were it not for the deep meaning behind the lyrics. The album’s name and the references to entropy maximization aren’t just random mumblings intended to look cool. Far from it: they convey clever criticism on the unsustainable way humanity has been exploiting the environment for its own benefit. A topic already present in their previous album, now given a central role.

From this album, the song Animals struck me particularly hard. At this point I must say that the song’s interpretation I’m about to share is truly my own. I haven’t read it anywhere and so it’s totally possible for it to have nothing to do with what the band wanted to express. Still, the liberty to interpret music to our own accord is one of its many qualities.

At first glance I thought the song was about social classes’ differences and the way the richest exploit the poor. The song does seem to encode a powerful negative feeling against the capitalist system in general: “You’re out of control (…) Analyse/ Advertise/ Expand”. The narrator also seems to realize, halfway throughout the song, that he himself is part of the system, adjusting his discourse to “We’re animals (…) we’re out of control”. While this seems to make perfect sense, I believe the lyrics yet go deeper. I’m convinced that the title bears a double meaning and that the narrator is in a way speaking on behalf of all the other animals in the planet. From this perspective, “Animals, we’re animals” attempts to make us realize that we share this planet, as well as bring our attention to our recklessness and brutality, features we often associate with wild beasts. “buy yourself an island” and “Buy yourself an ocean” stand for both our capitalistic perspective of life and the way we treat the environment and its natural resources as if they’re rightfully ours. Simply pick a random line of the lyrics and you’ll find heavy criticism on our attitudes.

The last lines are specially haunting to me. “Kill yourself / Come on and do us all a favour”. Is that what the other animals think of us? Is that what the planet would say, were it capable of thought and speech?

Not long ago I saw this movie called Chronicle (which I strongly recommend while we’re at it) in which a calm and bullied kid obtains super powers and starts to get progressively more aggressive towards other people. In the end, his feelings of superiority are so strong that he loses perception of the value of human life: “I am an Apex predator. Does the lion feel bad killing the gazelle? Do people feel remorse when they kill a fly?”  These aren’t just pretty catch phrases; they really underline the reasons behind our reckless actions. Have we grown so important (in our minds) that nothing else matters?


Filipe Baptista de Morais