Muse has been one of the most successful rock bands in the world for nearly two decades. And, as it turns out, this is not always an enviable position. The band is both revered and loathed. The group chases hits, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing. Still, Muse is one of the most important bands in alternative rock.

I want to look at things objectively. And for once, if possible, I’d like to focus on the positives. There’ll be little complaining from me this time. Why argue with a band that’s achieved so much fame?

These are the 10 best songs by Muse.

The Greatest 10 Songs by Muse

10. “Muscle Museum”

Muse was always a highly ambitious band. But the trio never ignored the trends either.

For their 1999 album, Muse tried hard to pass off as an alternative-rock act. This was still, after, the dominant genre. Meanwhile, however, post-Britpop and post-grunge bands, like Coldplay or Bush were stalking the charts from just around the corner. Groups like Radiohead had proven that something more could be achieved.

“Muscle Museum” somehow cuts the difference. It’s an earworm. It displays the band members’ considerable abilities without hamming it up. And, it announces a new rock superpower developing.

9. “Feeling Good”

One gets the feeling that Muse could’ve written prog-rock concept albums if they wanted. But while Matthew Bellamy is an enterprising man, he’s not above throwing some crowd pleasers.

Covering “Feeling Good” is standard practice nowadays. But it was something relatively new. It was something that Radiohead, the band most often compared to Muse, wouldn’t do. And it perfectly suited the group’s ever-expanding crowd shows.

8. “Starlight”

What was it that finally turned Muse into one of the biggest bands on the planet? Was it all the hard work, consistency and experience? Sure, that’s part of it.

But just like Radiohead or Coldplay, in their own way, Muse never shied away from fame. “Starlight” is a song written so as to be performed to giant audiences. Still, little of this piano-driven composition feels like a populist gesture.

7. “Time is Running Out”

As we speak, there are kids in their bedrooms trying to learn Muse songs. Most of those songs require a great degree of skill to play. Make no mistake about it, Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard are top musicians.

But Muse’s members rarely overplay unless it’s to make a point. And the band’s never been stuck in one sound of the past.

“Time is Running Out” used early 2000s production techniques, along with grunge-like dynamics, very cleverly. The result was a radio hit that even the nerds could love.

6. “United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage”

In the age of digital singles and TikToks, it might be easy to think of Muse as just one thing. Bellamy and his bandmates would, however, hate you for it.

By 2009, the band was just as hard to pin down. “The Resistance” was a dystopic, politically charged record. The band blended prog-rock finesse with classic rock guitar explosions, and straight pop with long prog-rock compositions.

“United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage” is one of the more challenging songs on the record. It begins as a lush piano ballad focused on Bellamy’s theatrical, pitch-perfect singing. It develops into a grandiose, Queen-like composition. And it ends with an ethereal, cinematic outro.

5. “Hysteria”

There were many bands and artists, by the early 2000s, blending genres together than ever before. Muse did the same. Its secret weapons, however, were incredible musicianship and a genuine interest in trends.

That’s how “Hysteria” sounds: simultaneously highly tense and lush. The band’s heavy, dynamic sound is the result of exceptional playing and a good understanding of modern audiences’ shifting attention.

“Absolution” was released in 2003 and was a sleeper hit. Inspired in equal measure by classical music as by pop trends, by the end of the album’s run, it had acquired a large cult audience.

4. “Supermassive Black Hole”

Good things, perhaps, happen for those who wait. But they are much more likely to happen to those who work for their success.

Muse had toiled relentlessly since its late 1990s debut. The future-funk sexy sounds of “Supermassive Black Hole” seemed to be just what the charts needed in 2006, but this was hardly an accident.

Spearheaded by Bellamy’s guitar heroics and vocal falsetto, the band creates a natural-sounding dance-rock hybrid and one of the biggest songs of the era.

3. “Guiding Light”

What did the world expect to happen when it handed so much power over to Matthew Bellamy? By 2009, the musician’s confidence was only matched by his musical ability.

Yes, “Guiding Light” is very much over-the-top. But Muse never pretended to be an average, meat-and-potatoes rock band.

“Guiding Light” flirts with classical arrangements and stage musical pomp and delivers a rousing, sophisticated pop moment of great sweetness. Muse may have many imitators, but few would take such risks or have the skills to pull this off.

2. “Plug In Baby”

Matthew Bellamy fashioned himself as an atypical guitar hero. After all, 2001 was not an era for overblown solos.

Instead, Bellamy used his technique to craft instantly memorable guitar riffs played with incredible, trendy tones. There are few of those better than “Plug in Baby.”

Muse uses the band’s proficient musicianship and knack for dramatic, dynamic shifts on one of the best and most creative singles of the early 2000s. The group had properly arrived!

1. “Knights of Cydonia”

Muse was not your typical alternative-rock band. And the group wasn’t interested in merely being a prog-rock unit either. Guitar heroics and supercharged tenor vocals were part of the mix, but not the only ingredients of the band.

The band always had a tendency to go over the top. On “Knights of Cydonia,” Muse fully embraces this aspect of the group. They do it with good humour, too.

A futuristic country-rock number featuring guitar pyrotechnics, Knights of Cydonia” was the unlikeliest rock hit of the era. It’s also Muse’s shining hour.

Few bands this interested in guitar techniques will ever achieve such success. This is one of the best songs in alternative rock. And, since its release, Muse has, arguably, never lost of fully disappointed its large, core audience.

This is the band’s shining hour and, really, one of the greatest alternative-rock songs ever recorded.