It's hard to write about 'Madness' without thinking of Muse...
Muse is one of my favorite bands and 'Madness' is the name of the second single from their album The Second Law. It was a major commercial and critical success; the song topped Billboard's Alternative Songs chart and was nominated for a Grammy. Perhaps most importantly, it inspired this incredible piano cover from vkgoeswild, a piano player known for her covers of well-known rock songs on her Youtube channel.
'Madness' was the first time I ever wondered what artists did once they produced their best work (1). Like, after the band finished recording 'Madness', what did they say? Let's do a cover of a Chvrches song? Or maybe Prince? Come on, right?
Everyone reaches the pinnacle of their lives someday. Fortunately, this is a good thing (or at least I suspect so, given my belief that the most difficult part of decline is knowing it's happening). Those in hyper-competitive fields where performance is measured in relative rather than absolute terms - like rock music - do not often get the benefit of this ignorance. When these artists reach their pinnacle, the decline is obvious to all.
I wonder if Akutagawa was dealing with this feeling when he wrote his short story 'Spinning Gears'. Did he wonder if the summit was behind him as he detailed his protagonist's sensational descent into mental illness?
Footnotes / into a supermassive black hole we go...
1. Technically, this line could invalidate the post...
But I'm not going to defend my choice of 'Madness' - I'm just here to talk about the concept. If I needed to, I could rewrite the post with a different example.
I'll make my stance clear: I think 'Madness' is Muse's best song but I do not think it is their best Muse song. Frankly, 'Madness' just doesn't sound like something Muse would come up with - it's more pebble than rock, if you will, reader. (Were I forced to choose a best 'Muse song' to fit into this idea, I would go with 'Stockholm Syndrome'.)
I expect the bigger the Muse fan, the more likely he or she is to disagree with my stance on 'Madness'. That's OK - I understand completely. I kind of disagree with myself on this point at times, in fact. People who tend to identify 'Madness' as their favorite Muse song are usually choosing between it and 'Starlight', the only two Muse songs they actually know, and I would never use the words 'best' and 'Starlight' in the same sentence.
If you are entering a conversation about Muse and have no idea about (or interest in) the band, just say you like 'Knights Of Cydonia' - but only the live version with the harmonica intro! This will give you enough credibility to survive any ensuing blunders.
For the record, my favorite Muse song is 'Plug In Baby' or 'Supermassive Black Hole'. It just depends on my mood that day, I suppose.
