OTM #6 - Butterflies and Hurricanes - MUSE

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"It sounds like MUSE is coming to Hong Kong, " my classmate said.
"What? But there wasn't even a rumor about it!" I screamed.

But I think there is such possibility. Actually the boys are going to the Summer Sonic - the Japan rock fest - in August, Tokyo and Osaka are the only two Asian stops of the 2nd Law World Tour...like other bands who would do Japan in summer season, usually they would like to do one to two places before or after.

Usually, it would be Hong Kong and Taiwan. And such a guess out of no fact at all makes go back to their music for a while.

I met Muse when they first came to Hong Kong and the first song I came across was Starlight. As I have said, whatever the first song that makes me be obsessed with the act would remain as the best for me, no matter how many better songs out there produced form them. But that's not the case for Starlight. Yes, this was the song that persuaded me to attend their first live in HK, provided that I knew NOTHING about them back then. However after I had spent some times "revising" their songs before the show, I found Butterflies and Hurricanes was like——

THE BEST SONG EVER.

It probably was due to the fact that by that time I was trapped by my biggest failure and I was constantly on the edge of breaking apart. And the lyrics literally described my situation:

Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead

It was somehow the hardest time in my life so far. This song was like a call for action:

Best,
You've got to be the best

It was like a lightening in the head when I studied the lyrics. I did go digging up the story behind or what did mean for the writers, I just made up my own interpretation. It just sounded like a timely help for someone fell into desperation.

Actually after a while that I found that quite a lot of Muse's songs are quite dark, like Time is Running Out,  New Born and Map of Problematique. Most of them would tell stories of desperation, hopelessness and helplessness. However the best part of these songs is that there is always a sense of fighting back being embedded inside, both explicitly and implicitly. Together with Matt Bellamy's iconic twisted singing style, which sounds like suffering and resisting at the same time, Muse's songs are somehow songs for revolution of oneself. It is necessary to recognize the current situation is very much dissatisfying and it may be true that there is nothing we can do about it, however does it mean that we cannot start the change from ourselves? "Be the butterfly and start a hurricane", that was the epiphany that Butterflies and Hurricanes gave me.

(Not to mention Muse is one of the best live bands in the world, you just can't get energized after seeing them live)

And I have taken it into the bank and tried to apply such spirit as much as possible. Well, at least I made it.

Thanks Muse, I hope I can go to see you guys for the third time.

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