Muse takes to space–well, almost–to announce their new album

After teasing something new on social media for the past month, Muse is back with more space-themed modern prog. This is the first single from The WOW! Signal (which is a great astronomical/cosmological/alien contact reference; Matt Bellamy really wants to believe that someone is Out There).

This will be the first bit of proper material from Muse since 2022. To announce this single via a partnership with a company called Sent Into Space. A specially designed tablet was carried 33 km into the atmosphere to do…well, I’m not sure. (And it wasn’t really space; the Kármán line, the place where space begins, is at 100 km. But never mind.)

The album lands June 26. We’re told to expect “cosmic mystery, existential hope and the exhilarating possibility of contact with something far greater than ourselves.” Check out the spacey tracklisting.

1. The Dark Forest (a reference to the brilliant Cxin Lui sci-fi novel that’s part of The Three-Body Problem trilogy?)
2. Nightshift Superstar
3. Shimmering Scars
4. Cryogen ( perhaps a references to cryogenics, the study of materials at very cold temperatures)
5. Be With You
6. Hexgons (the weird phenomenon on Saturn’s polls?)
7. The Sickness in You and I
8. Unravelling (previously released single)
9. Hush
10. Space Debris