Muse's "Survival," the theme of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, debuted on BBC Radio yesterday. The British rock trio are an appropriate choice to represent the sporting event, because listening to Muse is like trying to win the pole vault, or do weird role-play stuff in the bedroom, for that matter; you have to totally commit to it and not worry about how dorky it actually looks, or else everyone's just going to end up bummed out.
The song is everything you'd expect from the dour band: a sweeping string arrangement that gives way to a jaunty Elton John piano riff (for added Britishosity), an eerie finger-snap beat, and a ferocious us-against-the-world defiance. Toss in a bit of martial choral chanting and (singer/awkward-sunglasses-running-dude) Matt Bellamy wailing to the heavens, and it actually kind of sounds like the not-kidding version of Lonely Island's “Space Olympics,” minus the bad-ass auto-tune.
“Yes, I'm going to win. I'll light the fuse, and I'll never lose,” he sings, while a chorus of scary Oompa Loompas chant in the background. “I choose to survive, whatever it takes, you won't pull ahead, and I'll keep up the pace. And I'll give my strength, to the whole human race.” It's a pretty accurate look inside the head of a world class athlete, or an ambitious rock band, because every single one of those dudes is insane.
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