Summer is here, and Muse is cranking the heat. The British prog-rock trio returned Wednesday (June 1) with new song “Will of the People,” the title track from their forthcoming ninth studio album.
“Will of the People” is an anthemic number with glam-rock swagger. And it’s accompanied by a cinematic sci-fi video, following a cadre of revolutionaries who make it their mission to hit the “Ministry of Truth.”
Award-winning animator and producer Tom Teller directs the dystopian music video, which is stuffed with easter eggs and captures a look if V for Vendetta was set in Blade Runner 2049.
Produced by Muse and mixed by Serban Ghene, the new track follows the release of “Compliance” and “Won’t Stand Down,” the latter hitting No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“Will of the People” is a “fictional story set in a fictional metaverse on a fictional planet ruled by a fictional authoritarian state run by a fictional algorithm manifested by a fictional data center running a fictional bank printing a fictional currency controlling a fictional population occupying a fictional city containing a fictional apartment where a fictional man woke up one day and thought ‘f— this,’” explained Muse frontman and guitarist Matt Bellamy in a statement.
The full-length album of the same name is set for release Aug. 26 via Warner Records, and is the followup to 2018’s Simulation Theory, which led the Official U.K. Chart and came in at No. 12 on the Billboard 200.
Bellamy and Co. will hit the road this October for a limited run of theater shows in North America and Continental Europe.
Muse 2022 tour dates:
Oct. 4 — The Wiltern, Los Angeles
Oct. 11 — The Riviera Theater, Chicago
Oct. 14 — The History, Toronto
Oct. 16 — The Beacon Theater, New York City
Oct. 23 — Royal Theatre Carre, Amsterdam
Oct. 25 — Salle Pleyel, Paris
Oct. 26 — Alcatraz, Milan
