United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage Lyrics

Lyric discussion by YourMum 

Cover art for United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage lyrics by Muse

I want to begin saying this song is incredibly powerful and moving. This is Muse at their best. However, I was a bit disappointed at first because Matthew Bellamy decided to withdraw from his usual falsetto vocals and focus on singing tenor. This adds a darker, more powerful mood and feeling to the song. Albeit, I was personally thrown a bit off because of it. The first thing that popped into mind was "Are they trying to go mainstream?" Probably not, though.

The components of this song are absolutely brilliant. They heavily visited Queen in the song, made the instrumental section Arabic, and in the end added a stunning arrangement of one of Chopin's Nocturnes accompanied with background noises of children and jet airplanes. I believe they incorporated these three elements to symbolically fuse three different cultures together. Queen from the USA, Chopin from Europe, and Arabian style music from the middle east.

I also believe that this song is inspired from the book 1984. Does anyone think likewise?

Other than that, the main message of this song is saying regardless of the trivial disputes of countries, we should all work together for the greater purpose of mankind.

Song Meaning

I completely agree that it's referencing 1984, my favorite book. It was the first thing I thought of when I heard the song title, and the rest of the lyrics fit too perfectly.

So, a view from one of the other countries created in the book?

Matthew said that in the NME interview...

great interpretation.. but Queen is British.