Muse released Simulation Theory on November 9, 2018. The band’s eighth studio album followed Drones with synthesizers, science fiction and a visual world rooted in the 1980s. Its starting point had been a much quieter idea: an acoustic record.
Bassist Chris Wolstenholme recalled that early plan in a December 2018 interview with Q104.3’s Out of the Box. Muse had discussed making a “really stripped back, acoustic album,” with “Something Human” as the first song they worked on. As the sessions developed, their renewed enthusiasm for synthesizers sent the music elsewhere. Wolstenholme connected that direction to childhood memories of the 1980s, when the band members first encountered much of the music that shaped them.
“Something Human” kept a personal concern at the heart of the project. In the single’s release announcement, Matt Bellamy described wanting to regain a sense of humanity after life on the road. Lance Drake’s video put that desire inside the album’s fictional setting, turning the simple task of returning videotapes into a chase through a simulated world. Drake had also directed “Dig Down” and “Thought Contagion,” and described the new clip as a continuation of their journey. A song about returning to ordinary life became part of an increasingly elaborate fantasy.
That expanding world developed around a recording process built to give individual songs more attention. Speaking to La Grosse Radio in September 2018, Wolstenholme explained that Muse had been considering how streaming encouraged people to choose individual tracks and build playlists. They wanted the freedom to record and release a song without waiting for an entire album. Inclusion on a future full-length wasn’t necessarily decided in advance. “Dig Down,” “Thought Contagion” and “Something Human” could each have their own release before joining the finished record.
The sessions were spread across nearly two years, often in visits lasting only two or three days. Wolstenholme said that spacing also gave the band more room to develop the artwork and videos alongside the music. They could think through how the project would look while the songs were still taking shape.
Artist Kyle Lambert connected those pieces on the cover, combining the three musicians with characters from the videos for “Something Human,” “Thought Contagion,” “Dig Down” and “The Dark Side.” His illustration made the album look like a film poster, with the band and its fictional cast sharing the same space. It was a visual counterpart to the connections Drake had been building between clips.
The release also left room for listeners to hear the songs in different forms. Alongside the 11-track standard album, the deluxe edition included acoustic takes on “Propaganda” and “Something Human,” an acoustic gospel version of “Dig Down,” and alternate arrangements of “Algorithm” and “The Dark Side.” The super deluxe edition went further, including “Pressure” with the UCLA Bruin Marching Band. Those parallel versions let listeners compare how the songs worked with different instrumentation and arrangements.
Simulation Theory entered the UK’s Official Albums Chart at No. 1, giving Muse their sixth chart-topping album.
