Muse’s “Plug In Baby”: A Riff That Anchors Memory

The guitar gives “Plug In Baby” its face before Matt Bellamy’s voice arrives. A memorable shape already exists when the vocal opens another course above it. The riff that makes the song immediately recognisable does more than decorate its entrance. It establishes a reference through which the sounds that follow will be received.

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Muse - Plug In Baby (Official Video)

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A Signature Song With an Earlier Life

Muse’s 2019 Origin of Muse collection gathered their Newton Abbot demos, including an early version of “Plug In Baby”. Work preceding the familiar album recording therefore remains available. Behind the finished track’s immediate impression lies a period during which the band carried and developed the song.

That history makes it possible to consider the riff as more than a single flash of inspiration. Even a highly recognisable musical idea becomes part of a song through its placement among particular instruments and voices. Following the guitar’s line alongside Bellamy’s singing reveals a memorable phrase finding its place within the relationships of a band.

A Reference for Returning Listeners

For the twentieth-anniversary edition of Origin of Symmetry, Rich Costey remixed the original recordings. In announcing it, the band explained that “Plug In Baby” and “Bliss” were especially difficult to improve because their existing mixes already sounded good. The musicians preparing a new edition acknowledged the persuasiveness of the old recording as their starting point.

A remix can present the same performances in a different balance, but listeners already carry remembered sounds. Here, the opening guitar shape summons that memory quickly. Encountering a new edition thus combines discovering something new with recognising something familiar. The riff serves as the song’s entrance and as a coordinate to which listeners return across recordings from different periods.