Muse Release New Single ‘Nightshift Superstar’
GRAMMY® Award-winning English rock titans MUSE unveil their new single, Nightshift Superstar. The latest glimpse into the world of their forthcoming tenth album, The Wow! Signal out June 26, arrives as the band prepare to embark on a major North American amphitheater tour kicking off July 2. Fuelled by an irresistible hook, driving bassline, and a collision of rock, disco, and French house influences, Nightshift Superstar continues the sonic expansion of The Wow! Signal. Pre-order HERE.
As deliriously urgent as anything MUSE have shared yet, Nightshift Superstar blurs their signature fiery rock with funky French house — sweeping up driving disco rhythms, orchestral flurries, pinwheeling guitars, and choir vocals in the process. In the midst of it all, Matt Bellamy sings about a subject who beckons him into a world of sleepless thrills: “Kiss that kills the pain, I crave again / Now I can’t stay clean, you’re my darkest dream / I need you one more time / Dancing free, you are, a nightshift superstar.”
The song offers another glimpse into the world of of The Wow! Signal, which is named after an infamous unexplained interstellar event. Last month, the band shared the fourth transmission so far — the towering Hexagons, which fans unlocked by participating in a scavenger hunt spanning Sydney, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Paris, and London. Rock Sound called the track “a vibrant, stratospheric expedition into the most technically bold and audaciously beautiful components of the band’s sound.”
Before that came the utterly explosive Cryogen — hailed by NME as “a blast of classic MUSE harking back to their ’00s days with wailing riffs, [an] arena-destroying chorus, and painting an apocalyptic sci-fi landscape” — and the epic, hopeful Be With You, which arrived alongside a cinematic visual directed by Nico Paolillo and starring Ella Balinska (The Occupant, Resident Evil). After MUSE literally launched Be With You from space for the LP announcement, the single earned 3 million streams in its first week and became the #1 Most Added at Alternative Radio, where it has since climbed to #5.
The band originally stirred up rampant album rumors and mounting acclaim last year with Unravelling, since confirmed to The Wow! Signal track list. With arpeggiated synths that crash into a colossal wall of barbed riffs, the single racked up praise from outlets including Rolling Stone (“transcendent”) Guitar World (“endlessly gratifying”), and DIY Magazine, who lovingly called the song “balls-to-the-wall maximalist.”
The music and visuals that MUSE have released so far are revealing The Wow! Signal’s universe bit by bit. The set’s namesake is one of the most compelling cosmic mysteries of the last century: a powerful 72-second radio burst detected in 1977 originating from the constellation Sagittarius. The astronomer who discovered the anomaly famously circled the now-iconic sequence “6EQUJ5” and wrote “WOW!” on the printout beside it — giving the signal its name and cementing its place in scientific and pop-culture lore.
Exploring themes of extraterrestrial communication, technological anxiety, existential wonder, and humanity’s search for meaning in an increasingly disconnected world, The Wow! Signal arrives June 26.
MUSE, The WOW! Signal
1. The Dark Forest
2. Nightshift Superstar
3. Shimmering Scars
4. Cryogen
5. Be With You
6. Hexagons
7. The Sickness In You & I
8. Unravelling
9. Hush
10. Space Debris
