About 55 seconds into ‘Animals’, Matt Bellamy sings an insidious boardroom mantra: “Analyse… Advertise… Expand…” The 2nd Law, though, follows this trend: a paralysing dubstep trailer detailing thermodynamics followed by what is an unmistakable widening of Muse’s already Ulysses-esque horizons. Retention of bombast and the introduction of new musical energies (thus preventing the entropy that The 2nd Law discusses) would be a fitting showcase for Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenhome and Dom Howard’s unquestionable talents, proven as it is on few tracks.

‘Panic Station’ carries an undeniably Flea-like groove, channelling the Chillis at their bass-slapping, rapturous best with Bellamy’s vocal flourishes and a horn section completing a glorious, exuberant demonstration of just what Muse can do on form. ‘Madness’ is a beautiful crescendo of acceptance of love’s irrationality, as Bellamy croons that he has “finally realised what you mean” over an electronic bass dub before giving way to a linear, jerky guitar solo, airy backing vocals and a final, desperate wail loaded with genuine yearning.

This is without doubt a swelling, pulsating album at its finest points, channelling the rugged grandeur of the sublime and almost makes up for Muse’s lazy headbangs to Led Zeppelin (Muse don’t do nods) on the James Bond-esque ‘Supremacy.’ These moments do not cover for the frankly boring middle section of the album: a potent example of Muse resting on their admittedly titanic laurels. 

These are songs devoid of development and nuance, qualities which Muse so frequently display on a grandiose scale. The pair of closing tracks are more successful experiments than the ‘Exogenesis’ denouement to The Resistance, with that dub drop in the former and a bell-like piano motif in the latter allowing Bellamy to tick off those final two boxes on his genre-bending clipboard.

The 2nd Law does prove that Muse can resist musical entropy: there are fanfares of true inspiration, and the sheer magnificence and scale is sublime. But, considering that the sheer amplitude of the ambition here invites insufficient attention to detail, it is hard to suggest that Muse will never bow to musical entropy without revisiting what has made them the force that they are.