Muse Album Cover Series - The 2nd Law

Hello, and welcome to the final installment of my Muse album cover inspired series! This sure has been fun, challenging, and it has pushed my creativity to another level. The final look is based off of Muse's latest album, The 2nd Law. The name of the album references the second law of thermodynamics.

Released worldwide in September and October of 2012, this album is vastly different from previous albums. Many long-time fans disliked the album, but I quite like it. Yes, it's different, but as an artist myself, I welcome and appreciate creativity and experimentation. In a interview with Absolute Radio, Matt mentioned the new album may have influences from Justice and DIOYY, and that he was very into the 'hard electronica' sound at the moment.

In an NME article according to Dominic, the band "went to see Skrillex in Camden around October. We went 'Fuck, it's so heavy', loved it. It was like a full metal gig, they had the circles of death, people were moshing, I hadn't seen a reaction like that to electronic music before. We took inspiration and came up with Unsustainable." Matt added, "Some of that hard dubstep or brostep coming from America is capturing the imagination. The moshpit has moved from guitars and gone towards the laptop, so with that song we're trying to see if we can challenge the laptop. We created something that was dubsteppy but we wanted to see if we could do it with real instruments. We wanted to ask, 'Can rock bands compete with what these guys are doing?'" In the same NME Article, the song Panic Station was described as having "demented 80's elements such as backwards 'Let's Dance' drumbeats and riffs reminiscent of INXS' 'Suicide Blonde'". Also, in a recent interview Matt revealed that he took influence from "The Dark Knight Rises" composer Hans Zimmer, claiming:"He's the greatest film composer of recent times. That song 'The 2nd Law', you can definitely hear some Hans Zimmer influence."

The song "Survival" was the official anthem of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Also, Matt took a break for a couple of tracks and let Chris, the bassist, take over and write, compose and sing lead vocals on the tracks "Liquid State" and "Save Me".

The album's cover art, taken from the Human Connectome Project, represents the map of the human brain's pathways, "tracking the circuits in our heads and how we process information with bright, neon colors." The artwork was subsequently utilized by Muse in a social Connectome Project in September of 2012. As more fans joined the online project, the album art was built, representing the network of the neurons within the brain. As the album art branched and more fans joined the network, incremental segments of the album track "The 2nd Law: Isolated System" were released.

This look was hands down the most challenging of the series, but also the funnest! I love bright and bold colors against a black back drop. I tried to take an almost literal interpretation of the album art, because it's so beautiful and intricate to me. It's almost like a redux of my rainbow liner look!

My favorite track from the album has got to be "Follow Me". It's Matt's ode to fatherhood, and is pretty much a lullaby for his son, Bingham. At the beginning of the track, you can hear his son's heartbeat which was recorded with Matt's iPhone. The song starts quietly and gradually increases into an almost dance floor beat with big bass. They have also stated that the track is "out of the ordinary." All in all, a great song and I can't wait to hear and see it live next month!

FACE:

• Revlon Colorstay Foundation in Buff #150
• Make Up For Ever Powder Foundation in #200

EYES:

• BFTE Eye and Lip Primer
• NYX Jumbo Pencil in Black Bean as a base
• Makeup Geek Eyeshadow in Corrupt all over lids
• Wet N Wild Matte White Eyeshadow on browbone
• TKB Trading Eyeshadow in Hi-Lite Violet on tearduct and brow bone
• Rimmel Soft Kohl Pencil in Pure White on waterline
• Wet N Wild Liquid Liner in Black
• Lime Crime Uniliners in Lazuli, 6th Element, Blue Milk, Orchidaceous, Citreuse and Lunar Sea (with matte pink shadow and green matte shadow patted on top to create liner shade)
• FAUX Lashes in Chloe
• SugarPill Individual Lashes in Whisper

CHEEKS:

• NARS Blush in Amour

LIPS:

• Manic Panic High Voltage Gloss in Naked

And there you have it! My Muse album cover series is complete. I had loads of fun doing this, and I really hope you all enjoyed it. They have a couple of live albums, and I might do those as well one day. Take care, and I hope you have a great holiday and an even better new year! 

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