Resisting the 2nd Law

Well, two more runs down and two more Muse albums under my belt.  With only two more to go to complete the Muse studio album discography this is feeling like a challenge I can realistically complete in the short term and continue to keep up the momentum going forward.

Really, this is just a form of gamification: using the intrinsic elements of a computer game (completing missions; levelling up; bonus points, etc) - something that companies and even education has cottoned on to in the last few years because it combines a short term sense of achievement, together with an over arching longer-term vision and goal.  Powerful stuff! 

Anyway, it appears to be working as I've ran far more so far doing this, and for consistently longer times: in the past, I would run for maybe 5km, once or twice a week (three if feeling particularly energised); with this, I've regularly run 6 - 7km, 3 - 4 times a week. 

Onto the album reviews and mileage updates:

Album 5: The Resistance

I am hoping this is the nadir of the collection and that everything picks up from here.  Bloody awful.  Ok - from a musical standpoint, I can see that they're trying to do something different here and I can applaud them for that at least (a slow-hand, sarcastic clap realistically).  And yes, the songs are more varied across the album than previous efforts, at least for the first half.

However, from a running point of view, it's a terrible album.  I am willing to pay a sizeable sum of money that says that Matt B bought himself a grand piano for Christmas that year.  It reminds me of when Artic Monkeys did the same thing in their last 'effort'... a total moon-shot away from their original sound, and worse of all, just plain boring and self indulgent.

It didn't help that the last three tracks were essentially one long classical suite... I'm not sure if you've ever attempted to run to classical music, but assuming you haven't (because surely you're not that stupid), the indulgent sweeping sounds of classical piano for well over the last 12 minutes of your run is less than ideal, shall we say.  It's a shame because 'Unnatural Selection' is unashamedly brilliant (well, the first four minutes of it anyway) and makes you feel like you can genuinely take on the world whilst listening to it... probably one of my favourite Muse songs.  

But yeah, the album was patchy as a whole, a swamp of self indulgent piano nonsense and just pretty terrible to run to.

R rating: RR

Running time: 56 minutes
Distance: 7.3km
Calories: 571 

Fun fact: Released in September 2009, I was just beginning my second year as a teacher.

Album 6: The 2nd Law

Not much to say about this album...  It was ok.  To be honest, I wasn't really in the mood to run so that didn't exactly help my enjoyment of it.  I was hoping that it'd be an absolutely barnstormer of an album that would give me some much need energy to take on the run, but sadly it wasn't to be.  

I have to say, I preferred it to The Resistance, but then again I would have preferred running to an hour's collection of screaming cats than that again, so not really much to shout about. At least they did away with the grand piano tinkerings this time, plus the last three songs were actually pretty good and I ended the run on a high, so kudos for that.

R rating: RRR

Running time: 53 minutes

Distance: 6.9km
Calories: 543

Fun fact: The 2nd Law of course refers to the 2nd law of thermodynamics - the concept of entropy or how the universe naturally tends towards chaos over time - from a highly ordered state to a completely disordered one.  Particularly apt when reflecting on one's lifestyle choices!