Rolling Stone stated that the single sees Muse "swap bombastic bass brutality with wubby subtleties as Matthew Bellamy croons over a surprisingly gentle pop track." Radio Times described it as " George Michael's " Faith" underwater". Diffuser.fm noted that the single "doesn't sound like the Muse that established itself as one of the world's biggest rock bands" but that "the unusual blend of sounds works far better than it probably should", giving the track 8/10. NME described the song as "taking the defining noise of ' bass music' and using it to create slinky, soft rock sex music." The track review goes on to call it a brilliant single and states that Muse have "tamed the shark" following their declaration that Muse had jumped the shark with " Survival".
"Madness" was released as a download on 20 August 2012, with an accompanying lyric video for the song being uploaded shortly after.
The two main characters are played by models Erin Wasson and Max Silberman.
The video was filmed on the Red Line platform at Los Angeles Union Station. The director of photography was David Devlin. This video saw the second collaboration between the band and director Anthony Mandler, who previously directed the music video for " Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)". The "Madness" music video was uploaded to Muse's YouTube channel on 5 September 2012. He went on to conclude that, "It's the song I'm probably most proud of on the album for sure." Music video Matthew Bellamy stated that the song started as a personal reflection after a fight with his girlfriend Kate Hudson, and how, after she had gone to her mother's house, he began to realise "yeah, she was right, wasn't she?" In a separate interview, Bellamy stated the song was the band's attempt to strip down the sound of the album, and that the song has its roots in twelve-bar blues with gospel, soul and R&B influences. During a preview of The 2nd Law on French site Jeuxactu, the song was said to resemble Depeche Mode and described as "calm, languid and sweet". According to NME, "Madness" draws influences from Queen's " I Want to Break Free", George Michael's " Faith" and some instrumental elements of his other hit " I Want Your Sex". The next two tracks have equally fantastic quality with “Fogo,” an upbeat drum and bass style track – and “Grypt,” which really goes off the grid."Madness" is an electronic rock, synth-pop, soft rock, and R&B song. The second track, “Juice For Mel,” has a lovable hop and bounce to complement some nice breaks and twists. “Ephemeral Drift” starts things off and it's a wicked trip into galactic IDM that has the same reverb into outer space you might hear from Frequent – taking no particular course on its path to madness. There are genres called “Future” and then there's glitchy IDM music like this – Alon Mor's new EP called ” Natural Beheres.” The young Israel native has four tracks with a delicious mixture of stomach-churning neuro funk and sounds of alien telecommunication that we try to define simply as “glitch hop.”Īll four tracks are all free downloads from The Glitch Shop. Sometimes experimental electronic music goes far beyond the edge of EDM.