If you’re expecting a song that doesn’t sound like a sister track to anything the band have done since ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ then you’ll be disappointed as the familiar sound of throbbing guitars and galaxian soundscapes are all present and correct and though this epic feeling isn’t necessary a bad thing there is a certain sense of familiarity around it.
Matt Bellamy and the lads do seem like they are channelling numerous musicians for this piece though with the Feeling-esque opening backed by the Oompah-Loompah crowd from the Charlie and Chocolate Factory film before giving a nod to the Scissor Sisters and ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ before going all Queen on us with an ‘Innuendo’ style feel for much of the song before a gentle nod to ‘Bicycle Race’ as if Freddie wanted to come back for a second stab after enjoying ‘Barcelona’ so much.
We also get some male chanting, female backings and calls to ‘fight’. Fitting for an Olympics set in London.
Lyrically it’s very much a Muse track with their familiar sound and writing style but with key Olympian words thrown in for good measure, in the same manner that every singer leaving a boyband for a solo career has to drop in the obligatory word for freedom or fresh start in among the word sheet.
It’s a brooding, dark track that doesn’t particularly strike me as being particularly sporty. I can hear it to be the soundtrack of the England football penalties with its sense of foreboding but not so much an English athlete heading for the finish line of the 400m relay.
In conclusion ‘Survival’ is so Muse you might as well just listen back to ‘Neutron Star Collision’ and imagine Michael Phelps instead of scenes from the Twilight movies, which coincidentally what I was doing whilst watching the films. It’s not an unenjoyable track but it feels like two songs badly welded together like a sub-par javelin and doesn’t really make me feel patriotic or particular excited about the Olympics. I just can’t picture it playing over replays of footage and sounding good but we’ll see.
OK, but not Olympic. 6/10
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