Exogenesis: Symphony
Encyclopedia
"Exogenesis: Symphony", commonly known as simply "Exogenesis", is a song by English alternative rock
band Muse
, featured on their 2009 fifth studio album The Resistance
. Written by lead vocalist, guitarist and pianist Matthew Bellamy
over the course of a number of years, the song is presented as a symphony
in three movement
s entitled "Overture", "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption" respectively, each occupying a separate track at the end of the album and spanning nearly 13 minutes in total. "Exogenesis" was released as a single
in the United States on 19 April 2010, with 500 copies to be made available by import in the United Kingdom through the band's official website.
quoted Bellamy as revealing that "I think on the next album I’d like to do at least one 15-minute space rock
solo." This idea was later discussed further and in a more extreme sense, when Bellamy suggested that the band may reject the conventional album
format in favour of releasing a series of single
s, or indeed "one 50-minute symphony."
As the band confirmed that recording had begun for the album in late-2008, Bellamy explained more about the symphonic song, which he revealed would be in three parts on the album:
With the presence of "Exogenesis", among other songs, Bellamy hinted at the classical
direction taken by the band in writing and recording The Resistance, describing the record as "A symphonic album" and joking that "We'll be knocking on Classic FM
's door, you know?"
Speaking for the iTunes LP
feature for The Resistance, Bellamy said the following about the inspirations and meanings of "Exogenesis":
page, the track listing for The Resistance; the "Exogenesis" was shown to occupy the final three tracks of the album, with the three parts being dubbed "Overture", "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption", respectively.
In a pre-release interview with the band, NME identified "Exogenesis" as one of the highlights of the album, describing it as "more bombastic than anything Muse have ever previously done" and revealing that it features "classical piano from Bellamy and a full orchestra throughout." French media source JudeBox reviewed the album before its release, comparing Bellamy's vocal performance to that of Radiohead
frontman Thom Yorke
and identifying classical composers Frédéric Chopin
and Franz Liszt
as influences for the symphony. Mojo
quoted Bellamy as revealing that the song features an orchestra
of over 40 musicians, while NME praised the "classical piece [...] put together by Matthew Bellamy
over the course of many years" as the "Most astonishing and over-the-top of all" the songs on The Resistance. The feature article quoted bassist and backing vocalist Christopher Wolstenholme as saying the following on the song:
Drummer Dominic Howard
was quoted as adding the following to the description of "Exogenesis":
On possibly performing the song live, Bellamy was quoted simply as enthusiastically declaring that "We’ll give it a go!" For most shows of The Resistance Tour
, "Overture" has been a staple and is usually played at the start of an encore, leading into "Stockholm Syndrome
". So far however, "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption" are yet to be played.
Exogenesis was released on 19 April 2010 in the US on 12" vinyl only. Exogenesis: Part I is used for Dior Homme
's advertisement called "A Rendezvous", directed by Guy Ritchie
and starring Jude Law
.
, besides festival appearances (although it had been played at one or two of the festival slots, this was however rare). Live performances during arena dates would usually take place during the first song of the encore set and would involve the band performing on the towers which comprised the arena tour's stage design, as they slowly rose up and blue lighting covered the stage. However, during later dates, the song was sometimes used as the concert opener, although this was rare. Stadium performances were more notable however, as the band would release a UFO into the crowd whilst the song was being played. The UFO would circle the stadium and, as Matt Bellamy's vocals started, an acrobat in the guise of an alien would drop out of the bottom of the UFO and begin performing acrobatics above the audience. This was also a notable event in Muse's live career, as the band had tried and failed on previous tours to secure a UFO to use in live performances, only to have their plans foiled because of health and safety issues.
Official lyrics
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...
, featured on their 2009 fifth studio album The Resistance
The Resistance (album)
The Resistance is the fifth studio album by English alternative rock band Muse, released in Europe on 14 September 2009, and in North America on 15 September 2009....
. Written by lead vocalist, guitarist and pianist Matthew Bellamy
Matthew Bellamy
Matthew James Bellamy is an English musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, pianist, and main songwriter of the alternative rock band Muse.-Early life:...
over the course of a number of years, the song is presented as a symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
in three movement
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
s entitled "Overture", "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption" respectively, each occupying a separate track at the end of the album and spanning nearly 13 minutes in total. "Exogenesis" was released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in the United States on 19 April 2010, with 500 copies to be made available by import in the United Kingdom through the band's official website.
Background and composition
A song in the long, symphonic style of "Exogenesis" was first hinted at as a possible inclusion for Muse's fifth studio album in early 2008, when British music magazine NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
quoted Bellamy as revealing that "I think on the next album I’d like to do at least one 15-minute space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
solo." This idea was later discussed further and in a more extreme sense, when Bellamy suggested that the band may reject the conventional album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
format in favour of releasing a series of single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
s, or indeed "one 50-minute symphony."
As the band confirmed that recording had begun for the album in late-2008, Bellamy explained more about the symphonic song, which he revealed would be in three parts on the album:
With the presence of "Exogenesis", among other songs, Bellamy hinted at the classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
direction taken by the band in writing and recording The Resistance, describing the record as "A symphonic album" and joking that "We'll be knocking on Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...
's door, you know?"
Speaking for the iTunes LP
ITunes LP
iTunes LP is a format for interactive album artwork introduced by Apple Inc. on the 9 September 2009. It is similar to the CMX format being developed by the 4 major record labels, and operates within the iTunes 9 software, allowing the user to view multimedia elements alongside the music...
feature for The Resistance, Bellamy said the following about the inspirations and meanings of "Exogenesis":
Release and reception
On 3 July 2009, Muse revealed, via their TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
page, the track listing for The Resistance; the "Exogenesis" was shown to occupy the final three tracks of the album, with the three parts being dubbed "Overture", "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption", respectively.
In a pre-release interview with the band, NME identified "Exogenesis" as one of the highlights of the album, describing it as "more bombastic than anything Muse have ever previously done" and revealing that it features "classical piano from Bellamy and a full orchestra throughout." French media source JudeBox reviewed the album before its release, comparing Bellamy's vocal performance to that of Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
frontman Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
and identifying classical composers Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
as influences for the symphony. Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
quoted Bellamy as revealing that the song features an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of over 40 musicians, while NME praised the "classical piece [...] put together by Matthew Bellamy
Matthew Bellamy
Matthew James Bellamy is an English musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, pianist, and main songwriter of the alternative rock band Muse.-Early life:...
over the course of many years" as the "Most astonishing and over-the-top of all" the songs on The Resistance. The feature article quoted bassist and backing vocalist Christopher Wolstenholme as saying the following on the song:
Drummer Dominic Howard
Dominic Howard
Dominic James "Dom" Howard , is the drummer for the English rock band Muse.-Early life:Howard was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in England. When he was around 8 years old he moved with his family to Teignmouth, a small town in Devon. He began playing drums at about the age of 12, when he...
was quoted as adding the following to the description of "Exogenesis":
On possibly performing the song live, Bellamy was quoted simply as enthusiastically declaring that "We’ll give it a go!" For most shows of The Resistance Tour
The Resistance Tour
The Resistance Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English alternative rock band Muse in support of their fifth studio album The Resistance. The opening European leg began on 22 October 2009 and ended on 4 December 2009, comprising 30 shows. The second leg, which began on 7 January 2010, included...
, "Overture" has been a staple and is usually played at the start of an encore, leading into "Stockholm Syndrome
Stockholm Syndrome (song)
"Stockholm Syndrome" is a song by the English alternative rock band Muse from their third studio album: Absolution. The song was released as the album's lead single and also appears on the Absolution live DVD. It was released alongside its artwork as a download-only single through the...
". So far however, "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption" are yet to be played.
Exogenesis was released on 19 April 2010 in the US on 12" vinyl only. Exogenesis: Part I is used for Dior Homme
Dior Homme
Dior Homme is the menswear division of Christian Dior SA, the French clothing retailer. Dior Homme is currently under the creative direction of Kris Van Assche since spring/summer 2008...
's advertisement called "A Rendezvous", directed by Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
and starring Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
.
Live performances
The symphony is also noted for its live performances; despite the fact that "Cross-Pollination" and "Redemption" have not been played live, "Overture" has been performed at virtually every date on The Resistance TourThe Resistance Tour
The Resistance Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English alternative rock band Muse in support of their fifth studio album The Resistance. The opening European leg began on 22 October 2009 and ended on 4 December 2009, comprising 30 shows. The second leg, which began on 7 January 2010, included...
, besides festival appearances (although it had been played at one or two of the festival slots, this was however rare). Live performances during arena dates would usually take place during the first song of the encore set and would involve the band performing on the towers which comprised the arena tour's stage design, as they slowly rose up and blue lighting covered the stage. However, during later dates, the song was sometimes used as the concert opener, although this was rare. Stadium performances were more notable however, as the band would release a UFO into the crowd whilst the song was being played. The UFO would circle the stadium and, as Matt Bellamy's vocals started, an acrobat in the guise of an alien would drop out of the bottom of the UFO and begin performing acrobatics above the audience. This was also a notable event in Muse's live career, as the band had tried and failed on previous tours to secure a UFO to use in live performances, only to have their plans foiled because of health and safety issues.
Track listing
External links
Official audio samples
Official lyrics