Is Muse's 'Won't Stand Down' an Anti-Lockdown Anthem?

Perhaps Canada's truckers should be blasting Bellamy's latest from their cabs in Ottawa.

A group of masked men push an old, white-haired man in a wheelchair towards a stage. One of them carries some kind of transhumanist apparatus that allows the power-hungry figure to control a group of masked people standing before him. He commands, and they dance to his tune.

The lyrics of the new Muse single begin:

I never believed that I would concede;
And let someone trample on me.
You strung me along, I thought I was strong;
But you were just gaslightin' me.

The power crazed man sits on stage, directing his lessers to dance to his moves.

I've opened my eyes and counted the lies;
And now it is clearer to me.
You are just a user and an abuser;
Living vicariously.

The track heralds a return to Muse’s earlier, heavier days though remains philosophically similar to 2015’s Drones, which featured songs such as Defector, Revolt, and The Globalist.

The lyrics to Revolt feel especially prescient:

How did we get in so much trouble?
Getting out just seems impossible.
Oppression is persisting.
I can’t fight this brain conditioning.
Our freedom’s just a loan;
Run by machines and drones.
They’ve got us locked into their sights.
Soon, they’ll control what’s left inside.

Being the massive band Muse are, it may be difficult for left-libertarian frontman Matt Bellamy to so boldly buck the demands of his industry, label, and perhaps even bandmates on the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns. Instead, Muse may be signaling to us on a more covert level.

Won’t Stand Down is four minutes of resistance music, with the lyrics “Now I'm coming back, a counterattack/I'm playin' you at your own game,” seeming especially pertinent while the world watches (or attempts to watch) the truckers in Canada striking back against Justin Trudeau and his government.

But it’s not as clear cut to some.

While one NME magazine article describes the music video for Won’t Stand Down as featuring “a fragile, mysterious figure that siphons the collective energy of a dark army to transmute into an augmented being,” another, written by far-left Muse biographer Mark Beaumont, says: “the video sees Matt playing a decrepit figure operating entire faceless armies with flicks of his tech-connected fingers: Trump, much?”

That doesn’t actually describe Trump very well at all. But then again, Beaumont may know Muse better than I do. Bellamy himself has said of the track: “[It is] about standing your ground against bullies, whether that be on the playground, at work or anywhere… Protecting yourself from coercion and sociopathic manipulation and to face adversity with strength, confidence and aggression.”

It is certainly possible, therefore, to read into Won’t Stand Down in a far less Trump Derangement Syndrome way.

I've opened my eyes, I see your disguise;
I will never see you the same.
I know how to win before you begin;
I'll shoot you before you take aim.

Such utterances may easily be construed as a wider warning over the dark apparatus of centralized government, faceless apparatchiks whittling away human freedoms, and humanity’s increasing reluctance to “trust the experts”.

For what it’s worth, at the time of writing, Muse have not removed their music from Spotify.

And then there’s the video.

The power figure sits on a square, white-lit stage in the middle of a black room. His victims are masked. He is not. And he taps away with the control mechanism attached to his fingers, while chains and ropes hang above him, suggesting a higher level of control than even the assumed antagonist.

Following the peak of his control, he is hoisted away.

His taps and arms jerks appear to control his masked lessers, until he frenzies with power during the song’s breakdown. Is this Fauci? Is it Biden? It certainly seems to have no bearing to the behavior of Trump, in or out of office.

By the end, the man also dons a black face-covering and cloak, like everyone else in the room. Has he bought into his own lies, his own hype? Has he become as useless and disposable as the rest?

He levitates, perhaps hoist away by whoever controls him. The figure has served his purpose: to make the lessers dance to someone else’s tune. At the end, a man with a very different mask appears amongst flashes of red. Is this the real power, or just another patsy waiting for his turn in “control”?

Whatever Muse’s intent, Won’t Stand Down is not a track that lends easily to the idea of being subservient. Nor does the outward disdain for fleeting power grabs appear to compliment current governments across the Western world. Maybe Matt Bellamy is planning a Winston Marshall moment. Or maybe I’m just drowning in hope that one of the most anti-establishment artists of my generation isn’t going to go full Fauci on us.

Muse’s new album is out soon. So I suppose we’ll see.