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Thrak Attack #5- Simulation Theory

Welcome back to Thrak Attack! This blog is all about movies, music, and games, and sometimes we throw in some travel, tech, and TV shows. It's mainly anything that has an adventure. This week we a lot of news and a review of a new "rock" album... Let's get started!

NEWS!
-Fossil unveiled it's Sport Smartwatch lineup which will continue to use Google's Wear OS but offers a more fitness based look and feel.
-Youtube has finally come to Nintendo Switch making it more than just a video game console.
-Disney streaming service will launch in late 2019 and will be called "Disney+" I am super excited for this!
-Stan Lee passed away at 95 years old this week. It is a shame to lose such a legend and such an important person to the world of comics and movies. Stan was one of the perfect examples of "live your best life" and he will be missed in this world and will never be forgotten.



TRAILERS!
-Detective Pikachu: I always dreamed for a live action Pokemon movie... but I never dreamed it would be this one. I had a long debate with my friend about this trailer yesterday and I am more confused than when I first saw it. It doesn't look good, it's visually odd and tonally odd, it seems like a generic missing person plot. I want this film to be successful, but I know it's not going to be... We shall see, there is a slap bet riding on it!

-Toy Story 4: Toy Story is the perfect trilogy... It's up there with Back to the Future, Star Wars Original Trilogy, and Indiana Jones... Why make a fourth one? You wrapped up this story perfectly what else do we need to do in that story or universe? It seem cheesy and its 100% a cash grab. I refuse to see this movie out of principal alone!

Simulation Theory by Muse


Simulation Theory is the 8th studio album by the British rock band Muse. The rock group is known for high vocals, intense riffs, and weird sounds. This album is no different. Their  studio album "The 2nd Law" featured their hit song "Madness" and it inspired a brand new sound for this album. The band had a different approach to creating this album. Instead of writing the songs all at once and working on it as a complete piece of music; they wrote and recorded each song individually and then pieced it together. This is an interesting approach to writing and it works for some artists but I don't think it worked for Muse as a band.

There are some songs that are really good! "Pressure", "Propaganda", "Something Human", "Get Up and Fight", and of course (the best song on the album) "Dig Down" but we will talk about that one later. But some songs really fall flat like "The Dark Side", "Break it to Me", and "Thought Contagion". This comes a surprise because "Thought Contagion" is one of the singles from the album. It just feels like a song from "Drones", their previous album, which was not a good album.

All in all this is not a bad album, the musicality is awesome and the tone of the album all matches; but the sound and tonality of this album is way too disjointed to feel like a cohesive piece of music. The album cover and visuals of the music videos and live performances all have the same visual style which helps but it's just masking the fact the album isn't cohesive.

So let's talk about "Dig Down". Muse released "Dig Down" in the summer of 2017 and I loved it. It was a fantastic song and I felt like it was a sequel to "Madness" in 2012. Music doesn't really have sequels but if anyone could do it, it would be Muse. The original version of "Dig Down" was good enough, but the super deluxe version of the song that blows it out of the water. The acoustic gospel version of the song proves that Muse is not just a prog rock band but a force to be reckoned with. The acoustic gospel version shows that they don't need flashy synths and intense guitar riffs to create an awesome song.

Will I get this album on vinyl? No... If they release a 7 inch with both versions of "Dig Down" I will diffidently be getting it! I'll keep my eyes and ears open! Thanks for reading, hope to see you next week for Pokemon: Let's Go and Fallout 76!

                                                           All the Best, Ross












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