# The Resistance (album)
**The Resistance** is the fifth studio album by the English rock band [Muse](https://www.edgepedia.org/muse-band), self-produced and released in Europe on 14 September 2009 and in North America on 15 September 2009. It topped the national album charts of 19 countries, sold more than 5 million copies, and won the [Grammy Award for Best Rock Album](https://www.edgepedia.org/grammy-award-for-best-rock-album).[1](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf) • [2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) The album closes with *Exogenesis: Symphony*, a three-part orchestral work of about 12 minutes written by frontman [Matt Bellamy](https://www.edgepedia.org/matt-bellamy).[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Europe 14 September 2009; North America 15 September 2009[1](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf) |
| Label | Helium 3 / Warner Bros.[3](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/muse-the-resistance/) |
| Production | Self-produced by the band, recorded in their own studio in Como, Italy, for the first time[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) |
| Chart performance | Number 1 on the UK Official Albums Chart (first chart date 26 September 2009); number 1 in 19 countries; about 148,000 UK and 479,000 worldwide copies in its debut week[3](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/muse-the-resistance/) • [2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) • [1](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf) |
| Sales | Over 5 million copies[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) |
| Awards | Grammy Award for Best Rock Album[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) |
| Critical reception | Metacritic average of 72 out of 100 from 23 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews"[4](https://findatwiki.com/The_Resistance_%28album%29) |
| Closing track | *Exogenesis: Symphony*, three parts totaling roughly 12 minutes[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance) |
## Recording and production
Muse went into the album with strong commercial momentum: their previous record, *[Black Holes and Revelations](https://www.edgepedia.org/black-holes-and-revelations)* (2006), had sold over 750,000 copies in the UK alone, and the band wanted the follow-up to be bigger and more adventurous. For the first time they recorded in their own studio in Como, Italy, described by the band as a "war-bunker", with Matt Bellamy producing rather than an outside producer. Bellamy told *Q* magazine that he wanted *The Resistance* to be "a culmination of everything we know about music... Every style we have ever played. Every idea we ever had."[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance)
Bellamy arranged the orchestral elements of *Exogenesis* himself. In a band question-and-answer session in November 2008 he implied the piece was difficult to compose because he preferred to arrange it personally rather than hand it to a composer who might change the music.[5](https://www.musewiki.org/The_Resistance) The track listing was announced in July 2009, one song at a time, and the band later confirmed the album had been mixed and finished by June 2009.[6](https://www.muse.mu/news/resistance-tracklisting-228931) • [5](https://www.musewiki.org/The_Resistance)
## Songs and themes
The album's lyrics center on resisting tyranny and state repression, alongside love surviving under surveillance. The Guardian described the closing *Exogenesis* suite as imagining "humanity leaving a benighted Earth and starting again elsewhere", and drew a parallel with [George Orwell](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-orwell)'s *Nineteen Eighty-Four*, noting that *The Resistance* is "peppered with love songs like 'Undisclosed Desires', just as Orwell's *Nineteen Eighty-Four* entwines the love story of Winston Smith and Julia with the resistance to [Big Brother](https://www.edgepedia.org/big-brother-nineteen-eighty-four)."[7](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/nov/15/muse-live-o2-the-resistance) Bellamy said during promotion that the album puts forward the idea that "love and peaceful protest is ultimately the best way", adding with irony that "kicking a few shop windows in helps as well."[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance)
The twelve-track listing runs from "Uprising" to the three parts of *Exogenesis: Symphony* (Overture, Cross Pollination, Redemption), and includes "United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)", "Unnatural Selection", "MK Ultra", and "I Belong to You (+Mon Cœur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix)".[6](https://www.muse.mu/news/resistance-tracklisting-228931) "I Belong to You" draws on [Camille Saint-Saëns](https://www.edgepedia.org/camille-saint-saens)'s aria "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" from the 19th-century opera *Samson and Delilah*, while "Undisclosed Desires" is built without guitar over electronic drums in a stripped-down R&B style.[2](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance)
## Commercial performance and reception
On the UK Official Albums Chart, *The Resistance* debuted at number 1 on 26 September 2009 and spent 60 weeks on the chart through 13 November 2010, including 6 weeks in the top 10 and 52 weeks in the top 75.[3](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/muse-the-resistance/) Music Week reported the album as Muse's third straight number-one studio album in the UK.[8](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/2009/2009-09-26-Music-Week.pdf) In Germany the album reached number 1 as well.[9](https://chart-history.net/cc/cc-muse.pdf)
Critics were broadly positive but not unanimous. At Metacritic, which normalizes mainstream reviews to a 100-point scale, the album holds an average score of 72 from 23 reviews.[4](https://findatwiki.com/The_Resistance_%28album%29) Jess Harvell's Pitchfork review described the record as all-caps art rock that ends with a three-part epic "so shameless about its size it's billed as a 'Symphony'", and credited it as a very smartly sequenced album whose opening three songs evoke the stadium-grade synth-rock of [Depeche Mode](https://www.edgepedia.org/depeche-mode) at their crossover height.[10](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13453-the-resistance/)
Three singles charted from the album. "Uprising" was released in August 2009 and peaked at number 9 in the UK and 37 in Germany; "Undisclosed Desires" followed in November 2009, peaking at 17 in the UK and 49 in Germany; and "Resistance", released on 22 February 2010, reached number one on the UK Rock Chart and number 38 in Germany.[1](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf) • [9](https://chart-history.net/cc/cc-muse.pdf) *Exogenesis: Symphony* was released as a limited-edition EP in the United States on 17 April 2010.[1](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf)
## Editions and legacy
A Muse.mu-exclusive limited-edition deluxe box set, limited to 5,000 copies worldwide, contained the album on CD plus a 5.1 surround-sound DVD, a second DVD, a USB drive, and two LPs.[5](https://www.musewiki.org/The_Resistance) The album cover shows a small human figure on an orange path inside a circular tunnel of multicolored hexagons, leading toward a small Earth-like sphere at the center.[11](https://www.nationalalbumday.co.uk/media/1198/70-album-artworks-national-album-day-2018-with-description.pdf) The band's sixth album, *[The 2nd Law](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-2nd-law)*, followed in 2012, and reviewers have treated *The Resistance* as the start of Muse's more production-heavy, genre-hopping later phase.[12](https://www.audiotechnology.com/features/a-dip-in-the-muse-kitchen-sink)
## References
1. ["The Resistance" overview, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta eprints (CHAPTER I)](https://eprints.ums.ac.id/29829/2/CHAPTER_I.pdf)
2. ["How Muse aimed to fight the power with The Resistance", Louder](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/how-muse-went-one-step-beyond-with-the-resistance)
3. ["THE RESISTANCE \u2013 MUSE | Official Charts", The Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/muse-the-resistance/)
4. ["The Resistance (album) \u2013 Find at WIKI" (Metacritic aggregation)](https://findatwiki.com/The_Resistance_%28album%29)
5. ["The Resistance (album) \u2013 MuseWiki"](https://www.musewiki.org/The_Resistance)
6. ["The Resistance: The Tracklisting", Muse official website](https://www.muse.mu/news/resistance-tracklisting-228931)
7. ["Muse live at the O2, The Guardian", 14 November 2009](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/nov/15/muse-live-o2-the-resistance)
8. ["Music Week, 26 September 2009"](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/2009/2009-09-26-Music-Week.pdf)
9. ["Muse singles and albums chart history (Germany, UK, US)", chart-history.net](https://chart-history.net/cc/cc-muse.pdf)
10. ["Muse: The Resistance Album Review", Pitchfork, review by Jess Harvell, 15 September 2009](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13453-the-resistance/)
11. ["70 Album Artworks, National Album Day 2018" (description of The Resistance cover)](https://www.nationalalbumday.co.uk/media/1198/70-album-artworks-national-album-day-2018-with-description.pdf)
12. ["A Dip in the Muse Kitchen Sink", AudioTechnology](https://www.audiotechnology.com/features/a-dip-in-the-muse-kitchen-sink)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical practice and theory › Popular music genres › Rock works, labels, discographies, awards, and infrastructure › Rock studio albums › 2000s onward rock albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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