He continued, “It’s quite a sad song, in a beautiful way, and it’s probably one of the first songs I tried to teach myself on guitar. It’s one of those songs that gives me a lot of emotion.”

Perhaps best known for his work with the bands The Rascals and The Last Shadow Puppets, which he formed with Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, Kane has also become a notable solo artist. Releasing five studio albums to date, the singer has also collaborated with Turner, Noel Gallagher and French actress Clemence Poesy.

In 2017, Kane, along with fellow musicians Matt Bellamy of Muse, Nic Cester of Jet, Graham Coxon of Blur, Sean Payne of the Zutons and Nine Inch Nails and Jamie Davis formed The Jaded Hearts Club-a Beatles tribute band. Initially only playing songs by The Beatles, the band have also covered songs by Cream, The Who and The Kinks.

Kane has recently supported Arctic Monkeys on their UK and Ireland tour.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of our third studio album, we’re releasing ‘Muse Absolution XX Anniversary’.
Coming November 17th, the new edition of the album features remastered audio, never-before-released live versions, demos and photos as well as a new, in-depth interview… pic.twitter.com/QXmB9Nozeq

— muse (@muse) September 15, 2023

It may come as an astonishing surprise to those who grew up with Muse blaring out of their bedroom speakers, but Absolution turns twenty years old this month and the band are set to celebrate their seminal album with a massive new release. Absolution will be presented to fans as a deluxe boxset reissue that will feature a complete remastered edition of the record, plus bonus tracks and live recordings.

With Absolution, Muse were able to hit brand new heights, the likes of which the band had aspired to since their creation. Released on 15th September 2003, the album spawned four singles including “Stockholm Syndrome,” “Hysteria,” “Butterflies And Hurricanes,” and “Time Is Running Out.” The calibre of the songs, resonating with fans still to this day, also paved the ground for Muse to begin selling out arenas and included a headline slot at 2004’s Glastonbury festival.

The album was immediately praised by critics and fans alike, with most lauding the apocalyptic concept of the music and its finely polished sound credited to producer Rich Costey. Singer songwriter Matt Bellamy attributed at least part of the album’s success to the band’s conscience effort to take their time with the writing and recording process, instead of rushing it through as on previous efforts.

The album also became the first to break into the American market for the band, with the album eventually being certified gold in the United States. Importantly, the album signalled an evolution with the group that would continue to shape and define the sound that has made Muse a unique force within the genre and easily recognisable to their fans the world over.

The deluxe edition of Absolution will also feature demo recordings, photos, vinyl and CD versions and exclusive interviews with both the band and Costey. The boxset can be pre-ordered here.

Muse formed in Devon in 1994 and have maintained a consistent lineup throughout their history with Bellamy on guitar and lead vocals, Chris Wolstenholme on bass and Dominic Howard on drums. The band have won numerous awards over the nearly three decades that they have been active, including Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and MTV Europe Music Awards.

Muse will embark on a short run of UK and Ireland tour dates later this month. Tickets can be purchased here.

Muse UK and Ireland tour:

27/09/2023 – 3Arena – Dublin
29/09 – AO Arena – Manchester
01/10 – O2 Arena – London
02/10 – O2 Arena – London

The #WillOfThePeople tour comes to Europe Summer 2023 with special guests @royalblooduk
Tickets for most dates are on sale Friday 10am local, French shows go on sale Thursday 22nd at 10am local. pic.twitter.com/XvdNv1gFyL

— muse (@muse) September 12, 2022

The band released their 9^th LP, Will Of The People, a few weeks back and wow… what an experience that album is. Regardless of how on board you are of Muse’s trademark bombast, it’s undeniable that the album takes every conceivable dial and turns it as far as it’ll go – sometimes to its detriment. In an attempt to keep up with the current musical landscape the band also made the decision to sell their album in an NFT format. Making them the first artist to make UK number 1 with the implemented technology.

2 weeks ago, the band released their most recent single, “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween”, alongside the full album. Exploring their more overtly spooky tendencies, the track sees the band go full Danny Elfman for about 4 minutes. The Tom Teller-directed music video forces as many references to 80’s horror cult classics that it almost feels like a trailer to a pseudo-MCU horror movie, but with the guys from ‘Scream’ instead of Iron Man. You can check out the video below.

As mentioned before, the group announced the UK leg of the tour a few weeks back. With support from Royal Blood, the 4-night tour will see – probably – some massive-scale shows at some of the country’s biggest venues. The shows will kick off at Plymouth’s Home Park on 27^th May 2023. Tickets have already gone on sale so you can try to bag any remaining spots here. If the band’s history is anything to rely on, the shows will carry the tradition of just trying to do everything they did on the last tour… but bigger. Expect massive puppets on stage, fireworks, and maybe even some people floating over the crowd. Who’s to say.

Muse’s UK tour dates:

27/05/23 – Home Park – Plymouth
20/06 – John Smith’s Stadium – Huddersfield
23/06 – Bellahouston Park – Glasgow
25/06 – The National Bowl – Milton Keynes

The tour commemorates their ninth studio album Will Of The People. The first single from the album, ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ was released in July with frontman Matt Bellamy describing it as “Muse at their heaviest.” He told NME: “Lyrically the song takes influence from my favourite Paul McCartney song ‘Live And Let Die’, a dark take on how life’s adversity can sometimes bring out the worst human instincts to survival at any costs.”

Bellamy discussed the creation of the latest album with The Big Issue, he revealed that their record label wanted them to release a ‘best of’ compilation record. “We were reaching that point where there was talk about maybe doing a greatest hits album,” he said, “we weren’t really in favour of doing that,” “So it’s almost like we’ve made a record that is a greatest hits album – of new songs. That means this album might have a metal track on it – and it’s like, the best metal track we’ve ever done. Or there’s a sort of soft ballad, love song and it’s probably the best ballad love song we’ve ever done, and so on.”

Both the single and album have been released to strong reviews with Kerrang! describing the band as “masters of what they are doing” and agreeing with Matt Bellamy’s description of ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ saying the single alongside “the defiant Won’t Stand Down are some of the heaviest things the band have ever done.” Planet Radio described the album as “hyper-eclectic” and “ambitious.” The album is due for release on 26th August via Warner Records and can be pre-ordered here. 

Any fans who have pre-ordered the album through Muse’s online store will receive a unique code that allows early access to purchase tickets on 25th August at 9am. General sale is Friday 26th August at 9am and tickets can be booked through Gigs and Tours as well as Ticketmaster. When speaking to The Guardian, Matt Bellamy said: “Our live show is so much fun, I can’t even tell you,” “Massive lights, huge crowds, everybody singing along. It’s a little bit moreish. It’s akin to being in a football team and scoring the winning goal every day.”

Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums) formed the band Muse in Teignmouth, Devon back in 1994. They’ve since gone on to win two Grammys, the Ivor Novello Award, and they have sold more than thirty million albums worldwide. They have also scooped up two Brit Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards and eight NME Awards.

Muse’s UK tour dates 2023:

27/05/23 – Home Park – Plymouth

20/06 – John Smith’s Stadium – Huddersfield

23/06 – Bellahouston Park – Glasgow

25/06 – The National Bowl – Milton Keynes

In the record’s title track, Bellamy sings; “We need a revolution so long as we stay free”, a sentiment that comes from the growing concerns held by the band’s frontman in a world of terrifying acts in global politics. He stated; “It’s a worrying time because there is a chance here. There’s a window for a lovely new kind of political model or socio-economic structure that could be really good. A good change is possible, but the problem is you have these authoritarians that are realising that they can capitalise on disruption.

The term “authoritarians” refers to Donald Trump whom the musician formerly described as; “represent[ing] the worst of the worst. What he did was destroy the country by creating massive division,”

He later added; “By any measure, a great leader is somebody who can unify their own people against external threats, and he’s done the exact opposite of that. He made them all turn against each other, and that’s what actually caused the whole of the West to become vulnerable enough where Putin can do what he’s doing now… It’s his complete lack of knowledge about the forces that unify the West like NATO and liberal democracy that has caused this chaos.”

In regards to who Bellamy thought contributed most to the fallout of Trump’s four-year car crash in the oval office. He said; “I’d say it’s more a case of Putin [thinking], ‘Let’s encourage the chaos – the division’. And the more he could create this dismantling of the West, the more likely he was to be able to get away with what he’s been wanting to do for a long time, which is reclaim the old Soviet states.”

You can find the full interview here, in which Bellamy engages with many other of the world’s most pressing problems.

Elsewhere, Muse kicked off their summer tour on the 4^th of June 2022 at AM Ring. Featuring works across their entire catalogue (and some new material in the form of the unreleased track “Kill Or Be Killed”).  Information and tickets can be found here.

Will Of The People is currently available to be pre-ordered at the band’s official website.

The band also released a short statement seemingly explaining the fundamental message of the track. It reads, “Compliance is about the promise of safety and reassurance sold to us by powerful entities during times of vulnerability. Gangs, governments, demagogues, social media algorithms & religions seduce us with misleading truths and comforting fables. They want us to join their narrow worldview in exchange for obedience and turning a blind eye to our own internal voice of reason & compassion. They just need our compliance.” So, judging by this, it would seem that we’re in for another classic Muse journey. Grappling with universal maxims to try and take on whatever societal issue they’re planning on solving this time. We’ve dealt with war on Drones, I guess we got The Matrix with Simulation Theory, but this route seems to be more reminiscent of The Resistance. Considering the fact that the general census probably points towards The Resistance being the last solid Muse album; maybe this is a good thing. See the band’s latest teaser below and see what you think.

pic.twitter.com/Hh95eV50ku

— muse (@muse) March 9, 2022

Aside from these 2 singles, so far there have been no official announcements for when the new album will be coming out. But I think it may be safe to assume sooner rather than later considering the festival dates this year and the fact we already have these 2 tracks. A full-scale tour will also probably crop up, but until then you’ll have to make do with appearances at their only confirmed UK date at the Isle of Wight Festival alongside Lewis Capaldi and Kasabian. Fancy a trip abroad? Maybe Tempelhof Sounds in Berlin, Mad Cool Festival in Madrid and Germany’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park are what you’re after. See Muse’s full summer roster here.

WON’T STAND DOWN
Our new single, released next week on Thursday January 13th. Pre-save now at https://t.co/bTYoaVPipN #WontStandDown pic.twitter.com/1NmZRAC29Z

— muse (@muse) January 7, 2022

This will be Muse’s first new music in nearly four years, following on from their 2018 full-length album Simulation Theory. While that record saw the band indulging in a selection of different genres from rockabilly to Tangerine Dream-styled synthwave, fans have been particularly excited about Muse’s new direction with this upcoming single, as many were able to identify from the livestream clip that the band has taken a more metal oriented angle this time round.

It is safe to assume that the song will be a part of the band’s next album, which singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy has touched on in recent months, such as an October interview with The Sun (via NME) where he stated: “I’ve started writing a new Muse album…I started writing when all the protests and all the chaos were kicking off. It’s a weird thing to say but it suits the music I write. It keeps you a little bit on edge…I like the idea of totally resetting and going back to where we come from. As in, physically moving back to our hometown [Teignmouth, Devon] and getting back to how we used to be at square one.”

Bellamy added: “We’re likely to get in the studio next year to make a new album of some kind and then tour after that, depending on the travel restrictions. For us, 2020 was always going to be a year to contemplate being off work and off the road. Muse have never done that in the 20 odd years we’ve been going.”

In other news regarding Muse, the space-rock outfit will be playing a headline show at the beloved Isle of Wight festival later this year, as well as an appearance at Tempelhof Sounds in Berlin, alongside the likes of The Strokes, Interpol and Wolf Alice.

So far, this is the first taste of the band’s next musical venture, as no track list, album name ore release date has been shared, however fans can hope that an announcement is waiting just around the corner.

Based on discernible lyrics from the preview, fans are referring to the song as “Won’t Stand Down”. The snippet is just slightly less than a minute long, and features Bellamy singing the lyrics “Won’t stand down, I’m growing stronger, Won’t stand down, I’m owned no longer…Won’t stand down, you’ve used me for too long, For too long” as well as heavy, intense metalcore-esque guitar riffing.

Whilst the band are no strangers to injecting elements of heaviness into their music- one only needs to look to the likes of Supremacy, Dead Star or Yes Please to figure this out- the group has not yet made their first foray into making music that could truly fit into the vein of metal. As it would seem, this upcoming album might just change that.

Muse’s last album Simulation Theory was released in 2018, to largely favourable reviews. In a four-star review of the album, NME said: “With space-age rockabilly and EDM machine gun beats, this bizarre new album sees Muse retreat from the real world and into a ‘Tron’-style pastiche of their own adolescence.”

Whilst it is still noticeably a Muse album in its tonality, the record saw the band stepping away from the progressive and alternative rock angle of previous releases and occupying a more synth driven vein, with pounding electronic beats, side chained synth basses and flavours of 80s film scores, such as Tron and the various works of John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream. The album can be found on all streaming services, and physical media can be purchased here.

Last year, in an interview with NME, Matt Bellamy discussed the direction he wanted the band to take following Simulation Theory, saying; “I like the idea of totally resetting and going back to where we come from. As in, physically moving back to our hometown [Teignmouth, Devon] and getting back to how we used to be at square one.”

Presently, the clip from the livestream is the only snippet of any new music from the band, however Bellamy confirmed last year that writing had indeed begun.

The new album, You’ve Always Been Here, comprises of 11 covers, from Matt Bellamy’s fragment of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ to the wall of sound that is ‘Love’s Gone Bad’. The group carries Northern Soul into a new dimension, full of electric guitars, feedback, and the combined talent of musicians at the very top of their game.

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YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE IS OUT NOW We hope you all love it! Grateful for all your support up until this moment. Buy your copy of #YouveAlwaysBeenHere through the link in our bio!

A post shared by The Jaded Hearts Club (@thejadedheartsclub) on Oct 2, 2020 at 1:45am PDT

In case you missed it, The Jaded Hearts Club are a supergroup in every single sense of the word. They have the most stellar line-up – Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets) and Nic Cester (Jet) as joint frontmen, Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis playing guitar, Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and Sean Payne (the Zutons) as the drummer. Sometimes Abi Harding (The Zutons) joins them on the saxophone.

To prove it, The Jaded Hearts Club released a series of singles leading up to this release: ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (see below), ‘This Love Starved Heart Of Mine (It’s Killing Me)’ and ‘Love’s Gone Bad’. It seems fair to say that all the energy and glamour of The Jaded Hearts Club is found among these three singles; while the rest of the album tracks are exciting, they don’t have the explosive enthusiasm of their early singles. They come with energetic, lockdown-appropriate, black-and-white music videos, and Matt Bellamy in different but equally intriguing Rule Britannia-esque accessories. It’s all very, very cool.

Following these, You’ve Always Been Here has the best intentions in the world. The band’s desire to reinvent Northern Soul is overpowering and infectious, and you can sense how eager they were to find out what their combined talents could do. A lot, is the answer. Sometimes it completely hits the mark. Sometimes, though, it falls flat, stripping the covers of their unique qualities, leaving behind something that is undeniably very talented, but a little soulless.

Ultimately the album is technically impressive, but it wants for a sense of cohesion. In many ways so does the group themselves; the six (sometimes seven) strong and talented personalities sort of blur together. There is absolutely no doubt that this group could tackle any song in the world with spades of ability, but You’ve Always Been Here could probably have done with a bit more of a story. The Jaded Hearts Club are easily the greatest cover band in the world, but we don’t quite know what makes them tick.

All three of the album’s singles are particular highlights, as are Nic Cester’s ‘Long and Lonesome Road’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’. To my mind, this is the version of the line-up which delivers the most. Nic Cester doing the vocals, accompanied by powerful percussion and the familiar wind instruments of Northern Soul feels like the group’s greatest strength – and where they’re strong, they’re unstoppable.

Since 2017, the group have shared powerful, covers of everything from the Beatles (their starting point) to The Isley Brothers. According to Rough Trade, Davis wanted a Beatles band to play for his birthday. He’s quoted as saying: “I knew a bunch of 1/2 decent musician friends so I asked if they’d form an early ‘60s Beatles band. Everyone had such a good time that we decided to do it again.” Their website declares that they “have been described as the ultimate Beatles cover band.”

Surely, in one of those dream dinner party games (six people on your ideal dinner table, dead or alive, you know the drill) you couldn’t come up with a better line-up. What we really want from The Jaded Hearts Club, though, is a bit of purpose – we all know that there’s a niche for them in this current moment, but none of us know why. When they do show us exactly what 21^st century Northern Soul can do, it’s completely unforgettable.

Supergroup is absolutely the right term for the combined talent of Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets) and Nic Cester (Jet) as joint frontmen, Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis playing guitar, Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and Sean Payne (the Zutons) as the drummer. Sometimes Abi Harding (The Zutons) joins them on the saxophone. Musically, they are as fantastic as you’d hope – Kane and Cester have different but extremely powerful voices, and the rest of the band make their instruments look and sound like a natural extension of themselves.

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OCTOBER 2ND. PRE-ORDER NOW YouveAlwaysBeenHere link in bio.

A post shared by The Jaded Hearts Club (@thejadedheartsclub) on Aug 17, 2020 at 5:10am PDT

Currently, we’ve only seen the group publish covers – mainly incredible, stripped back, guitar-based versions of Northern soul classics. There is rumour of original music, and they play all sorts at their infamous live shows, but it doesn’t look like any of this will feature on their debut album. For now, having the band re-invigorate Northern soul classics is more than good enough! The singles they’ve released in 2020 include versions of ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (July), ‘This Love Starved Heart of Mine (It’s Killing Me)’ (April) and short little version of ‘We’ll Meet Again’, sung by Matt Bellamy.

Regarding their newest track, Kane called it: “‘Love’s Gone Bad’, a rare northern soul stomper that we dug from the underground. We beefed it up and gave it golden wings with matching loafers! Be prepared to dance!” 

The video is so cool – it’s all in black and white, set in London’s Moth Club, and Matt Bellamy is wearing heart-shaped sunglasses. It’ll have you dancing, spinning, and probably online shopping for loafers and corduroy trousers. Mainly it’s Kane dancing with a partner. The other band members do show up though, playing their instruments while Kane and his partner leap about, spectacularly in time with each other. Although, of course, The Jaded Hearts Club offer a rock-based take on Northern soul, the video is very much in the spirit of the 1960s dancehalls where the genre really took off.

The group formed in 2017. According to Rough Trade, Davis wanted a Beatles band to play for his birthday, and he’s quoted as saying: “I knew a bunch of 1/2 decent musician friends so I asked if they’d form an early ‘60s Beatles band. Everyone had such a good time that we decided to do it again.” In 2019 they recorded a live album at London’s iconic ‘The 100 Club’. Their website declares that they “have been described as the ultimate Beatles cover band.”

It’s not so long to wait for their album now – but you should know that the 12” version, on marble patterned vinyl, is already sold out for pre-orders! The Jaded Hearts Club are so fantastically energetic, even these three-minute videos feel like a true taste of what they’re like live. Hopefully there will be more of that to come, following the release of You’ve Always Been Here.