Blissful musings from Ironbridge

“Give me, all the peace, and joy in your mind”.

Apr 12, 2024

Welcome to the oldest iron bridge in the known world, 11th April 2024 **(Author’s Collection)**

Listening to Muse’s second album “Origin of Symmetry” on the way to Ironbridge this afternoon I couldn’t help but think of a brother who isn’t my brother and a young lady whose heart I broke after trying for so many years to convince me that Muse weren’t just Fancy Dan merchants whose music was just a constant invocation of an alien invasion. Eventually I saw the error of my ways, found a brother (who isn’t my brother) and fell in love with the incredible wall of sound produced by three friends from the south west coast of England before breaking the heart of the second love of my life.

Space Dementia? Perhaps. Apocalypse Please? Maybe. Stockholm Syndrome? Almost certainly. Thought of a Dying Atheist? Absolutely. Alas the 2nd Law ensured I retreated to my Cave after extinguishing a Starlight and my Guiding Light and if you’re unaware of these songs you clearly need to lead a Resistance and join me and the rest of the Knights of Cydonia in an Uprising.

See you on the other side of a Supermassive Black Hole?

“Origin of Symmetry” isn’t my favourite Muse album (I have 6 of their 9 studio albums released plus both of their incredible live albums) but the first track “New Born” remains my favourite song of theirs. My goodness what a song! Treat yourself sometime and trust me, belt it out at the top of your lungs and you’ll never feel more alive. The penultimate track “Feeling Good” is a fantastic cover version of the 1960’s original, “Citizen Erased” is VERY high in my affections and then there’s “Plug In Baby”, a Radiohead type scream at the awkward invasion of technology in our lives. I wanted to use “New Born” here and the lyrical tale told of a “birth squeeze” and the “bitterness” growing at an outside world full and with (my favourite lyric) “soulless is everywhere”. We’ve seen too much, too young apparently.

But I’ve settled on “Bliss” as I hope the images convey, you can’t help but feel a sense of bliss and ease and being in a different time zone and different reality from the rest of the world when in Ironbridge. It’s my spiritual home, and here’s a pictorial stroll along the banks of the River Severn towards the oldest iron bridge in the known world.

I hope you enjoy.

“Everything about you is how I’d wanna be
Your freedom comes naturally
Everything about you resonates happiness
Now I won’t settle for less

Give me
All the peace and joy in your mind”